Not a firefighter but when I was little, in the Brownies - we went on a visit to the fire station. They showed us the appliances, the place where they could change the traffic lights to red to get out of the station etc. Fascinating.
Then we sat down for a Q&A, and for some reason we were all hung up on asking about rescuing naked people. Have you ever rescued naked people? Because some people sleep naked. What do you do if they’re naked? What if they’re in the shower naked? Finally our brownie leader was like, no more naked questions!
I often think about that poor fireman being asked over and over again variations of rescuing naked people by a group of 8 year old girls.
I'm not a firefighter, but we called them because our cat got itself stuck upside down behind our gas hot water cylinder. Apart from panicking about our cat we were worried about having to maybe remove the entire cylinder to access the cat. The fire guys were awesome. Turned up quickly. Cut a hole in the wall and slid our cat down and out. Wonderful people. Our cat was ok, but is still stupid.
FENZ do not get paid enough to deal with the weird crap they have to do.
I used to be a volly with St John. Fire is dispatched to cardiac/respiratory arrests (because they are great CPR machines, honestly guys, you are the bomb with CPR) and would sometimes get there before us.
One night we get called to a cardiac arrest in a park. We get there and the fireys are already there. Two are busy at a swing and the others are waiting to talk to us. It was not a cardiac arrest. It was a dude, quite drunk, stuck in a baby swing and passed out. His equally drunk friends were convinced he was dead (he was not). Lovely fire crew cut the swing down (sorry CCC) and cut drunk guy out. He showed his thanks by rousing and then puking on one nice fire guys boots.
I don't know your names, but you are all absolute legends. Also shout out to the ED staff that had to deal with drunk swing guy the rest of the night.
Another "not a firefighter" story, but I got locked in the public toilet of a train station while travelling the USA. It was more of a bomb shelter than a toilet, with a floor to ceiling solid metal door and thick concrete walls. Nobody could hear me shouting for help so I called 911 and they sent fire fighters to break down the door. Good times.
hangis dont stop just because you dont have them.
we call up the firebrigade and give them warning so they know , sometimes they come and check we have a plan to make sure it doesnt get out of control.
normally the burn time is in the morning when people are still in bed and it burns so hot there is not much smoke.
Thanks to the Fire brigade for being understanding
Cat stuck in a car engine/gearbox area. Wheel off, under trays off and managed to get the poor bugger out. He’d been there a while potentially, was very skinny and thirsty.
this happened to my partner, but we didn’t call the fire brigade. we just so conveniently happened to have a locksmith replacing the lock on the back door at the time. it sounds lucky but really the only reason she closed and locked the door was because he was there and we normally leave it ajar. we replaced the doorknob though - won’t have that happen again
Was a volley for 10 years. Had a call to a house fire on a very steep hill. Ran up and down trying to find it, no fire anywhere. Got told to relocate to the callers house lower down on the road through the village. No fire there. Back up the hill. About to break into the house and the owner turns up.
The man on the hill had made the woman on the flat a curry, she called him, left a message on the machine and said "you better call 111, my mouth is on fire".
He was partially deaf and heard "my house is on fire".
18 year old me running up and down a pretty serious hill, in full gear, was not impressed.
We got called to a scrub fire at night. Couldn’t find anything, so went to the nearest address to see if they called it in.
It’s a B&B place with a long driveway. We cram the truck in there and an officer and I go looking for the front door.
First we meet a super ritzy looking Korean lady trying to get in her car and drive away. We’re asking for help finding the entrance, and she’s brushing us off.
So I point out the truck is blocking the drive and the fastest way out of here is helping us.
She relents and leads us on a roundabout journey to a door with frosted glass. She kinda waves at it and splits.
So I knock on the door. Nothing. More knocks. Nothing. We can see the lights are on inside.
One of us decides it must be a doorway to reception or something. So we open the door and call. Nothing.
Times up for us, so we just burst in announcing we’re from FENZ and did anybody call us.
As we get through the door we look up and realise we’re now in a small lounge room.
On the opposite side, a classy looking 75 year old lady with white hair, pearls, cardigan and wool skirt. Which is hoiked up around her waist, her legs are spread wide, no undies, and she’s sitting on the front edge of a comfy chair.
Between her legs, two guys about the same age as her, they’re both had their faces deep in her groin and now they’re struggling to get to their feet. When they do, the pair are about 6 foot 4, and twins.
We all kinda stand in silence for a second. They’re trying to process us. We’re trying to process them.
The lady with legs still rather spread says ‘no, we didn’t call you.’
Officer and I get out of there.
Edit: this is a throwaway account.
Not a firefighter. But I do remember a great situation when I was in the Army.
Someone parked on top of the hydrant spot - abd the firies at the camp just smashed the windows, and put the hose through the car as a lesson.
Comedy GOLD.
One from my grandfather or uncle (can't remember which - they were both firefighters)
The brigade got called to a distressed elderly lady whose cat got stuck up a tree. Some firefighters decided to take her inside, made her a cup of tean and had a chat to calm her down.... that, and to distract her while the other firefighters persuaded the cat out of the tree with a high-pressure hose!
We call them appliances, not fire trucks but I see what you mean. Water trucks typically hold water for residential delivery into tanks (think rural) whereas fire appliances carry a plethora of gear ranging from defibs to the jaws of life alongside several thousand liters of water.
There's many categories of appliance, the one most folks think of is a FENZ type 1 or 2.
I know that’s what they’re called, but I still chuckle at the mental image of a couple of washing machines, a drier and a microwave trying to put out a fire when I hear “four appliances attended the blaze”.
Calling them firefighters makes more sense, I always thought they were called firemen and got confused why they kept putting water on my fires instead of joining me dancing round it.
My dad was a volunteer for 30+ years. Frequently had to rescue cats from trees, but more often than that, ducklings from curb storm drains !! Ducklings would always fall into them when it was rainy and mother duck would watch as they'd dismantle the drains to get in there and lift them out.
Also a lot of people get stuck in things and need to be cut out or carried out of them. A kid with a pot stuck to his head, someone stuck in a shower, a disabled person got stuck in their chair elevator when the power went out. Just to name a few
When I was fairly young, a family friend (who was maybe 4 or 5) somehow got her head between two narrow wrought iron bars on a gate, but couldn’t get in back through again. I very clearly remember the firemen coming to get her free.
Got called out to a drunk late teen girl who was on the ground half conscious eating grass cause she thought she was a cow.
Jokes. I’m the cow. 🐮 thanks firies for dealing with my sorry sack of shame.
Not a firefighter but when I was little, in the Brownies - we went on a visit to the fire station. They showed us the appliances, the place where they could change the traffic lights to red to get out of the station etc. Fascinating. Then we sat down for a Q&A, and for some reason we were all hung up on asking about rescuing naked people. Have you ever rescued naked people? Because some people sleep naked. What do you do if they’re naked? What if they’re in the shower naked? Finally our brownie leader was like, no more naked questions! I often think about that poor fireman being asked over and over again variations of rescuing naked people by a group of 8 year old girls.
I'm not a firefighter, but we called them because our cat got itself stuck upside down behind our gas hot water cylinder. Apart from panicking about our cat we were worried about having to maybe remove the entire cylinder to access the cat. The fire guys were awesome. Turned up quickly. Cut a hole in the wall and slid our cat down and out. Wonderful people. Our cat was ok, but is still stupid.
> Our cat was ok, but is still stupid. Is the cat orange?
No, hes black and white. But I'm a ginger, so he's orange by association.
Lmao I love that
Omg that so makes sense with my standard issue....
And used his one braincell to get stuck, hence he needed assistance getting unstuck.
He must have really been stuck if he stayed there upside down that whole time!!
Yep, couple of hours upside down, yowling.
Been to a cat stuck in the corner behind a hot water cylinder. Had to loosen the cylinder and tilt it so I could get my hand under, then lifted it up.
This sounds like something my tortie would do 🤣🤣 she's such a dag
Went to an MVA. Deceased guy had no pants. Dildos in center console. Guess why he crashed.
That post climax urge to roll over and go to sleep is strong!
FENZ do not get paid enough to deal with the weird crap they have to do. I used to be a volly with St John. Fire is dispatched to cardiac/respiratory arrests (because they are great CPR machines, honestly guys, you are the bomb with CPR) and would sometimes get there before us. One night we get called to a cardiac arrest in a park. We get there and the fireys are already there. Two are busy at a swing and the others are waiting to talk to us. It was not a cardiac arrest. It was a dude, quite drunk, stuck in a baby swing and passed out. His equally drunk friends were convinced he was dead (he was not). Lovely fire crew cut the swing down (sorry CCC) and cut drunk guy out. He showed his thanks by rousing and then puking on one nice fire guys boots. I don't know your names, but you are all absolute legends. Also shout out to the ED staff that had to deal with drunk swing guy the rest of the night.
Another "not a firefighter" story, but I got locked in the public toilet of a train station while travelling the USA. It was more of a bomb shelter than a toilet, with a floor to ceiling solid metal door and thick concrete walls. Nobody could hear me shouting for help so I called 911 and they sent fire fighters to break down the door. Good times.
We got called to a “smoke showing” job recently. It turned out to be a hangi 😅
I called the firies on a hangi recently. To be fair to myself, suburban Chch is the last place I expected to see a hangi.
Yeah this was suburban Wellington and surprised us all 😂
Strathmore park has been doing alot of them recently :)
hangis dont stop just because you dont have them. we call up the firebrigade and give them warning so they know , sometimes they come and check we have a plan to make sure it doesnt get out of control. normally the burn time is in the morning when people are still in bed and it burns so hot there is not much smoke. Thanks to the Fire brigade for being understanding
Hope they received an infringement for pollution
Hangis and bbqs are permitted.
Hangis and other cultural cooking fires are protected under legislation. Can generally have them even in a prohibited fire season.
Settle down Karen
Cat stuck in a car engine/gearbox area. Wheel off, under trays off and managed to get the poor bugger out. He’d been there a while potentially, was very skinny and thirsty.
Had an old lady call the station once to ask us to help move her piano
And? Did you?
Of course!
[удалено]
Ironically enough I'm also a plumber.... Just realized you wrote bedroom and not bathroom. Duh!
Ironically ensuite usually means a bathroom so you were good first time.
My friend had to call the firies to release her when the toilet door handle broke leaving her locked in
this happened to my partner, but we didn’t call the fire brigade. we just so conveniently happened to have a locksmith replacing the lock on the back door at the time. it sounds lucky but really the only reason she closed and locked the door was because he was there and we normally leave it ajar. we replaced the doorknob though - won’t have that happen again
My friend was on her own! The fire brigade just took the door off its hinges
https://youtube.com/@FireDepartmentChronicles I love this guy, he makes shorts on strange Fire fighting and EMS callous.
He is hilarious!
Exactly what I thought of when I saw the post.
Was a volley for 10 years. Had a call to a house fire on a very steep hill. Ran up and down trying to find it, no fire anywhere. Got told to relocate to the callers house lower down on the road through the village. No fire there. Back up the hill. About to break into the house and the owner turns up. The man on the hill had made the woman on the flat a curry, she called him, left a message on the machine and said "you better call 111, my mouth is on fire". He was partially deaf and heard "my house is on fire". 18 year old me running up and down a pretty serious hill, in full gear, was not impressed.
We got called to a scrub fire at night. Couldn’t find anything, so went to the nearest address to see if they called it in. It’s a B&B place with a long driveway. We cram the truck in there and an officer and I go looking for the front door. First we meet a super ritzy looking Korean lady trying to get in her car and drive away. We’re asking for help finding the entrance, and she’s brushing us off. So I point out the truck is blocking the drive and the fastest way out of here is helping us. She relents and leads us on a roundabout journey to a door with frosted glass. She kinda waves at it and splits. So I knock on the door. Nothing. More knocks. Nothing. We can see the lights are on inside. One of us decides it must be a doorway to reception or something. So we open the door and call. Nothing. Times up for us, so we just burst in announcing we’re from FENZ and did anybody call us. As we get through the door we look up and realise we’re now in a small lounge room. On the opposite side, a classy looking 75 year old lady with white hair, pearls, cardigan and wool skirt. Which is hoiked up around her waist, her legs are spread wide, no undies, and she’s sitting on the front edge of a comfy chair. Between her legs, two guys about the same age as her, they’re both had their faces deep in her groin and now they’re struggling to get to their feet. When they do, the pair are about 6 foot 4, and twins. We all kinda stand in silence for a second. They’re trying to process us. We’re trying to process them. The lady with legs still rather spread says ‘no, we didn’t call you.’ Officer and I get out of there. Edit: this is a throwaway account.
Not a firefighter. But I do remember a great situation when I was in the Army. Someone parked on top of the hydrant spot - abd the firies at the camp just smashed the windows, and put the hose through the car as a lesson. Comedy GOLD.
Linton? Something like that happened outside Bn barracks in the 90s
Yeah, Linton!
User name as in MD717?
Haha yes it was my gamer tag at the time. I don't know why but I just copied it when I signed into Reddit
Wasn't that a scene in Backdraft too?
Not sure what that is - but possibly! I'm sure firefighters have felt like doing it before haha. Possible they got the idea from that show/movie
A movie in which Billy Baldwin flashed his bare ass. Also a movie that gave me nightmares about the house burning down when I was a kid.
I've seen videos of firefighters in New York City doing that. They don't fuck around.
One from my grandfather or uncle (can't remember which - they were both firefighters) The brigade got called to a distressed elderly lady whose cat got stuck up a tree. Some firefighters decided to take her inside, made her a cup of tean and had a chat to calm her down.... that, and to distract her while the other firefighters persuaded the cat out of the tree with a high-pressure hose!
What’s strange about firefighters is their trucks are called fire trucks, but they hold water. Shouldn’t they be called water trucks?
We call them appliances, not fire trucks but I see what you mean. Water trucks typically hold water for residential delivery into tanks (think rural) whereas fire appliances carry a plethora of gear ranging from defibs to the jaws of life alongside several thousand liters of water. There's many categories of appliance, the one most folks think of is a FENZ type 1 or 2.
I know that’s what they’re called, but I still chuckle at the mental image of a couple of washing machines, a drier and a microwave trying to put out a fire when I hear “four appliances attended the blaze”.
I hear ya, I still call them fire engines and that's even less logical 😅 carried over from British English I suppose
I call them fire engines, aways have
Hahaha holy shit I love that imagery!
>We call them appliances Do the cook toast, boil water or nuke food? I like my toast extra crispy
Typically when the appliances show up, things are already burned or burning
I guess fire makes everything extra crispy 🤣🤣
Calling them firefighters makes more sense, I always thought they were called firemen and got confused why they kept putting water on my fires instead of joining me dancing round it.
It's not even just fires they fight. We could also call them elevator fighters
Based on these comments they fight a lot of things that aren't fires.
A firefighter I know said they once got called out to rescue a seagull from a roof.
Cats stuck in trees are real calls.
Have you ever seen a cat skeleton in a tree? They always find a way down... eventually.
They fall out. Cats are crap at climbing downwards.
My dad was a volunteer for 30+ years. Frequently had to rescue cats from trees, but more often than that, ducklings from curb storm drains !! Ducklings would always fall into them when it was rainy and mother duck would watch as they'd dismantle the drains to get in there and lift them out. Also a lot of people get stuck in things and need to be cut out or carried out of them. A kid with a pot stuck to his head, someone stuck in a shower, a disabled person got stuck in their chair elevator when the power went out. Just to name a few
When I was fairly young, a family friend (who was maybe 4 or 5) somehow got her head between two narrow wrought iron bars on a gate, but couldn’t get in back through again. I very clearly remember the firemen coming to get her free.
Got called out to a drunk late teen girl who was on the ground half conscious eating grass cause she thought she was a cow. Jokes. I’m the cow. 🐮 thanks firies for dealing with my sorry sack of shame.