You can still see this video at its source, BainbridgeGA.com, but not on YouTube
Maybe this is SOP in Bainbridge, Georgia, but it is a little odd looking. After a fire engine pulls up to a truck fire on Route 27 last Tuesday, a Georgia State Patrol officer and a Decatur County sheriff’s deputy grab a line, flake it out and start attacking the fire. Another officer mans a second line. Their only PPE: ballistic vests and guns. Eventually the people in fire gear take over.
While I know many firefighters who would threaten to take the officers’ weapons and start shooting criminal, this may not a big deal in this part of Georgia. The City of Bainbridge uses the public safety officer model where all public safety officers double as police officers and firefighters (according to the article below, the two cops on the line are not PSOs from Bainbridge).
Here’s more on the fire from BainbridgeGeorgia.com Community News:
Georgia State Patrol and Sheriff’s Deputies kept the fire at bay with hand held extinguishers until Bainbridge Public Safety arrived. Then, as Public Safety Officers donned their gear, GSP and Deputies quickly pulled the hoses off the fire truck and began extinguishing the fire.
Asst Fire Chief Doyle Welch arrived with the first truck. As arriving Public Safety Officers donned their gear, Troopers Walt Landrum and Brian Palmer and Deputy Steve Singleton pulled hoses from the truck and quickly began pouring water onto the fire. Public Safety Officers took over the hoses and completed the task.
The quick action stopped the fire from spreading into the semi trailer which contained rolled paper. No doubt if that had happened, the 30 minutes of a blocked west bound Bypass would easily have turned into several hours.
Here’s more on Bainbridge’s fire suppression from the city website:
All Public Safety Officers are certified in both Law Enforcement and Fire Suppression. The cars driven by Public Safety Officers are equipped with breathing apparatus, fire extinguishers, turn out gear, and other fire equipment for the officers responding to fires. The Fire Department is staffed by one Fire Chief and four Assistant Chiefs, one for each shift and has rotating officers to drive and pump the fire trucks when an alarm is given. the overall average response time to a fire is under two minutes.
Also on STATter911 …
- Raw video: Fire extinguisher salesman knows how to use them. Man saves the day at shopping district fire. – January 31, 2012
- Command post arrival video: House fire in Aloha, Oregon. – January 17, 2012
- Raw video: One stubborn car fire in Whitehall, Pennsylvania. – August 4, 2011
- Early raw video: Two-alarm house fire in Beltsville, Maryland. – April 11, 2011
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Other than the completely obvious…. Did that guy have his helmet on backwards?!?
That one firefighter was in such a hurry to get that hose away from that cop he had his helmet on backwards LOL and where are there air packs.
Proof of the old joke, How are cops and firemen alike? They both want to be firemen…
We ought to all work together and look after one another-”be our brother’s keeper”, instead of cops givin firemen a hard time, etc. I think it is great that they can work together and get along. Yes, it was a little rough and violated a standard some where but there is some powerful symbolism behind this.
I can’t stand it. Look at 1:12 – 1:13. The firefighter’s helmet is actually on backward. Should have just let the cops finish the job. Sad.
The Keystone Cops are alive and well. They got the fire out, but broke every safety rule in the book. Everyone goes home – did they forget that? The helmet part is a riot…or really sad.
I would love to know how many firefighters were on the 1st responding apparatus. If they are one of these cities that cross utilizes PD and FD as safety officers, the PD should have been pulling their bunker gear out of their patrol vehicles.
I felt empathy for the guy with his helmet on backwards. I can certainly recall several situations in my younger and unmarried years when I was forced to put my clothing on in a hurry and dive out a window, rarely was my clothing on in the proper fashion. It seems like this young man was equally excited about using his hose, and was worried as I was at that tender age, that the fire would go out before he had a chance to display his skills.
My favorite, “What are you ding moment” was the firefighter that used his non-gloved hand to grab the front cowling of the truck, burning it in the process. I was glad to have proof that I am not the only one who has grilled his hand in such a way.
I swear that trooper pulled that line better than I’ve seen some paid and volunteers pull a hoseline. That aint saying much cause it looked like a weak pull, but still….
Yes, the firefighters helmet was on backwards! I would hate to see if it were a real serious fire what that kid would do….. I will regress and try to protect the kid… Anyone know what the staffing on the engine was?
At first I thought it was going to be, OK, let’s start responding to bank alarms in the engine and truck; performing traffic stops and so on; but then these “firefighters” started….well, I hesitate to say started to do their job….but when they donned their gear, (there, how’s that?) I now completely understand why the cops grabbed the crosslay and extinguished the bulk of the fire.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I usually don my gear at the station so when I show up at a job I’m ready to go for the most part.
Other than that, just shaking my head.
Bahahahaha!!!!!
Like it’s always been said.. 5 points on the test seperate cop from firefigthers.
Looks like the cops got the job done pretty well. They stayed a reasonable distance away from the fire while they knocked it down. The lone first-due firefighter wouldn’t have done much good without help from the cops.
When did the second-due crew show up?
Average response time to a fire is under 2 minutes. That’s where the lies start to the taxpayers. I don’t care what you say, cops are cops and firefighters are firefighters and rarely do you get a good blend of both in one person. Crosstrained PSOs do nothing more in most cases than allow the administration to offer false statistics and pretty charts with artificially manipulated numbers. Best case scenario is everybody goes home; worst case is one or more of these good police officers gets injured doing what they really don’t care to do. Stop cheating your citizens; give them separate fire and police personnel. Give them the best quality service they deserve.
The video clearly shows exactly what I would expect to see from cops doing the work of Fire Rescue personnel … Not very pretty …
Watching this made me dumber. This is emaressing to the fire service, appropriatly staff your peice of Fire apparatus with COMPETAENT FIRE FIGHTERS . The circus i witnessed in this video is embarresing to the rest of the fire service and also each one of us that busts are butts being the best trained firemen that we can be. And cops have no buissness doing our proffession.
I loved the wiggling on the nozzles at the fire, almost said something out loud until the “firefighter” arrived, helmet backwards and set the nozzle to fog.
Give it back to the cops, fellas, they appear to have it far more under control.
Add another pin to the map of places I’ll avoid visiting.
Maybe they can send an email over to India and get some of those new low profile air masks they use over there. ANd that copper was only hittin something with the water 50% of the time while he was dancin around. And I hope the handline doesn’t leak on their tasers–they could get a nasty shock in the privates.
The article says all Public Safety Officials are crossed-trained as both Police Officers and Firefighters. Can you imagine these firefighters – “firefighters” – with weapons?!
One word, Circus!
This is a learning experience for all involved. The Police officers need to remember to put All of their Fire PPE on and the Firefighters to put their SCBA on.
If needed they should drill on this procedure.
all you know that cop could be with the volunteer fire!
another car fire when the firefighters didnt wear an SCBA its really simple to use and the air is free!
Oh and the cops on the line thats great! In our town we beat the cops to most of the calls
I find it hard to believe that it was this video that made previous poster, sargent Miller, dumber.
Why were they not geared up and ready to go when they stepped off the rig? No SCBA? Hi OSHA……..
sargent Miller. May I suggest that you go back to school and get an education in spelling. Have a good day.
PSO is fast becoming the biggest threat to the fire service. As sad as this video was it happens everyday across the country and citizens should be aware. When these crossed-trained “firefighters” show up at your house you are no longer a patient or a victim YOU are the suspect.
Where is OSHA? There it is on video, start writing the fines!
Love how they attacked from two different directions. You see it clear during the overhaul as they spray into each others’ faces. And we volunteers still catch the “We’re so much better than you volunteers because we are full time and get paid” line from our “Brothers”?! Gimme a break!
@ Ben
No volunteer fireman on my department would ever conduct a vehicle suppression activity like this without PPE. If they did, they would be released very quickly from our service.
Monday night quarterbacks..love the comments. The only person that should be commenting, complaining, or thanking the officers is the guy that’s driving the truck. Sometimes things aren’t done by the book. Sometimes rules get broken. Sometimes people get hurt. Never could figure out why cops run into burn building to save citizens’s lives. There were a lot of things wring with this scene, however, when it comes down to it…It’s people helping people. Now there’s a concept.
Goes to show that more cuts are needed to overstaffed fire trucks that DUE NOTHING all day. They did just fine with the cops. Look at it throught the puplic’s eyes…the truck fire got put out. Looks ok.
Man, egos are rampant! I’ve been a firefighter for 12 years, most as a company officer, and a professional peace officer for 8 years. It’s heartbreaking to see all the negative comments. Yup, safety rules have been broken, we all know that! So, what good does it do to slam either cops or firefighters? Not a dang bit! Good bless every hose dragger and door shaker! Let’s all be thankful no one was hurt and maybe these guys learned something.
@Eagletown: Good call. No good comes from bashing each other in public forums. We ALL end up looking like asses to the people who pay our salaries.
Did anyone else catch a little indicator at 1:28 in the video? The truck’s engine appears to still be running, there’s heavy white smoke coming from the exhaust stacks. WTF? Aside from every other violation of general safety guidelines, OSHA requirements, and basic common sense, don’t you think you should shut off the truck’s engine as soon as possible?
Brothers and Sisters, whether paid or not, BE PROFESSIONAL!!! Wear your gear- all of it- on every fire. If you don’t think it’s important, maybe you need to visit the local burn center AND the local Cancer Hospice. Get a good look at what you can expect if you don’t use your PPE!
Stay Safe
It’s a nice concept in the tight budgetary times but if we are going that way obviously we need to thoroughly train for the job. A quick review of this film should point out to all why we need to train, dress and respond in a professional manner. That way everyone goes home. Maybe a front and back label on the helmet would help.
Are you sure these aren’t the guys in India???
I see that the video has been pulled due to a copyright claim from Bainbridge. Whats the matter Bainbridge? Cant take the heat?
In Washington State the Revised Code of Washington, in the section covering the Law Enforcement Officer/Fire Fighter (LEOFF) Retirement System, prohibits Public Safety Officers (performing both FF & Law Enforcement) in jurisdictions over 10,000 population.
Unfortunately, even in Seattle/King Co, there are Police Harbor Patrol & Port Police responding to fires with no nationally recognized training (marine fires), and King Co Sheriff personnel operating ARFF units. Neither the Department of Retirement Systems or Labor & Industries will enforce the law. Even our local “doesn’t want to upset the cops”. Nice.
Steve,
To be fair the video is still available at its source, BainbridgeGA.com. It has not been pulled from that location. They certainly have the right to prevent someone else from ripping off their video. If it was posted on YouTube without their permission it was wrong.
Statter
Anyone who has been around for 40+ years may remember that at one time we were trained to put our helmets on backwards when approaching a fire of high intensity. Thankfully, times have changed.
I can’t believe that anyone is attacking the cops for helping. Yeah, they are cops and “shouldn’t forget that” blah blah blah. They did a damn good job with assisting, and the rookie with the backwards helmet should have taken the minute to breathe and correct his equipment and got his pack on. He just wanted to sling hose like the cops were. I wish PSP would help like those troopers did. They knew enough to stay back from the heat and toxic smoke. They knew to stretch the lines and prevent kinks, but they didn’t know how to do a proper attack. Why not invite LEOs to the stations and show them what we do? Let them help. One team, one fight.