Homeowner shoots firefighter

[Medics197]

you're telling me, i'm a pretty slim guy. so guess who gets asked to climb through windows and what not i do. this is honestly my worst fear, which is why i make sure like anyone else to yell "fire department...ect" (depending on circumstances) while trying adn climbing into any residence.

"The homeowner said he does not have a medical alert device. The house was having alarm problems, however, and the homeowner thought he was being targeted by criminals when he saw someone in his yard and opened fire."

And all the lights and sirens weren't enough of a hint?!

in the home owners defense, most of us turn the sirens off once we get into a neighborhood as blairing them does us no good to get to the scene any faster. typically at night even if none ones on the road we just leave the lights on, illegal yes but honestly it's annoying and i understand most people are trying to sleep at the wee hours of the night.

Lucky this was Fresno for the guy who shot the firefighter and not one of the small towns surrounding Fresno. A lot of the small cities around Fresno have policys where the police department responds with the fire department and paramedics on calls. Had it been a City like Kingsburg just South of Fresno, the shooter probarly would have gotten shot himself.

almost everywhere this is standard policy its called a "welfare check" and not the paper kind obama hands out. because most of these systems are wired for burglaries and fire's among other situations police departments always show up. The other major thing is atleast in orange county the police department will make forced entry and not the fire department in unknown situations, in la county the fire department makes forced entry most times.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve done what this guy did, sans getting shot. It’s an “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” type of alarm. You can’t just ignore it; some old lady could have fallen or be stuck on the toilet. It would be bad form to just blow it off and hurry back to the recliner.

Ideally, entry is forced after banging on the doors and windows, looking in all the windows and having dispatch call the residence. You also want to have dispatch ensure it’s just a Medic Alert type alarm. Some are combination Medic Alert and panic or just panic, which the resident would push if a bad guy was breaking in (the cops handle those.) We usually try to make access via windows because many people leave them ajar or if you have to break something, a widow is cheaper to replace than a front door.

The picture in the OP shows him wearing his PT shorts. The article said he was in his turnout pants, which are the bulky yellow things we wear. He likely had them over his shorts and the bullet went through both (a little further west and it really would have hurt.)

It’s hard to imagine the homeowner couldn’t figure out this guy was a fireman, based on what he was wearing. Plus, hopefully the FF was verbalizing “fire department” loudly so that the resident would hear him. Apparently the resident didn’t hear them pounding on the front door, so I guess he wouldn’t have heard someone yelling “fire department.”

The homeowner may have escaped charges but his actions were reckless. If he couldn’t figure out the guy in yellow was a fireman, he wouldn’t have figured out a guy in dark blue or tan was a cop who could shoot back. Things may have turned out much worse in that case.

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i'm guessing you must work in the ems field as do i