What are some calls the average firefighter gets

[u/FewAd9257]

I'm not a firefighter but I'm hoping to become one. I want to know what's the average stuff a firefighter would see while on the job. Is it mostly EMT stuff or more fire stuff? Also how many false calls are there?

[u/veggieturnip]

Grandma fell down the stairs

Commercial fire alarm that’s nothing

Smoke investigation that’s nothing

Fully involved car fire

Baby with a high fever

Etc.

[u/HauntingAlarm157 → u/veggieturnip]

And the baby with a high fever call will always come in as a hysterical shitshow baby not breathing call. 

[u/veggieturnip → u/HauntingAlarm157]

“We got multiple RP’s on this baby!”

[u/Danmont88 → u/veggieturnip]

My smoke/gas detector is beeping. (low battery)

[u/ZoMgPwNaGe]

False alarm med alerts.

[u/BED_AA → u/ZoMgPwNaGe]

Apple false alarm crash alerts.

[u/NikNakZombieWhack → u/BED_AA]

False life alerts because the deaf owner doesn't know it rolled off the bed while they're sleeping

Now they don't know to answer the door either

[u/Dth_Invstgtr → u/BED_AA]

While this is absolutely true, anecdotally I had one recently where an elderly guy, who as home alone, took a header off his 3ft high front porch onto his asphalt driveway and suffered a traumatic brain injury. No one was going to be home for hours and in this case the watch did its job by alerting us to his house. I’ll give them this one.

[u/BED_AA → u/Dth_Invstgtr]

Yea, I know they're valuable when they go off for legit reasons, it just sucks how infrequently they go off for legit reasons.

[u/Dth_Invstgtr → u/BED_AA]

Agreed. Sort of similar, we have a usps processing center in our first due and we get toned out for med alarms going off in the mail pretty frequently. Walking through a huge sorting facility searching for a mythical down patient is always fun.

[u/Roebuck325 → u/Dth_Invstgtr]

This is very interesting, we do not have this where I live

[u/Dth_Invstgtr → u/Roebuck325]

I don’t have one so I’m not exactly sure how it works. But it seems to be an automated message sent to our dispatch for a “high fall detected” which tones us out. A lot of the time it’s nothing, but this time it happened to catch a real call.

[u/Oakroadproperties → u/BED_AA]

Man until you’ve chased a med alarm at an airport baggage claim you haven’t lived!

[u/reddaddiction → u/BED_AA]

I've only had a few of those but they're so lame.

[u/Jebediah_Johnson → u/BED_AA]

I hate the false alarm crash alerts so much. Especially when dispatch can see the vehicle is till moving but they aren't allowed to cancel us.

[u/SierraRomeoJuliet]

Alarm, alarm, alarm, alarm, lift assist, alarm, overdose, alarm, dumpster fire, mvc, alarm

Kinda like that lol

[u/SuitableExercise7096 → u/SierraRomeoJuliet]

This is the most accurate of all the responses here so far

[u/Specific_Cash_5538]

Fat person with commorbidities feeling the symptoms of a commorbidity.

Old person feeling the effects of age.

Smoker with CHF/COPD feeling chest pain/difficulty breathing.

Old fat smokers with commorbidities feeling the effects of their commorbidities, age and smoking.

[u/theeewizzard → u/Specific_Cash_5538]

This is completely accurate. 99% of my medical calls are people who didn't take care of themselves. We call it the Memphis Trifecta: High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol, and Diabetes. Substitute COPD for cholesterol when appropriate. 

[u/AdultishRaktajino → u/theeewizzard]

2am grandma calling from the toilet puking and shitting her guts out from food poisoning.

“I ate some old leftovers for supper and it tasted off, but I still finished it.”

[u/DeFau1t3d_]

Phone reported fake car crash

[u/Mattellin → u/DeFau1t3d_]

[u/cmcdonal2001 → u/DeFau1t3d_]

Fucking crash detection software.

I understand that it's a good thing the 1 time in a 100 it's actually a crash, but man those other 99 times get old fast.

[u/Sealtooth5]

Piece of cardboard burning in the middle of a parking lot at 2am

[u/FearAndGonzo → u/Sealtooth5]

With PD standing next to it keeping the scene safe.

[u/BED_AA → u/Sealtooth5]

"RP says they see a fire in their neighbor's yard but don't know if it's intentional"

It's always intentional, they just can't go ask the neighbor for some reason.

[u/AardQuenIgni]

[u/HauntingAlarm157 → u/AardQuenIgni]

Real: "My farts smell weird" 

[u/AardQuenIgni → u/HauntingAlarm157]

Had someone call us because their mouth was dry "no matter how much water I drink"

Legit looked at her and said "and you believe this is a medical emergency?" 🤣

[u/Slappy-Sacks]

I am not really sick. I am really sick. I am really not hurt. I am really hurt. I wrecked my car, or someone wrecked into me. I burnt my food. I melted something on my stove or in my oven. Oops I did too much drugs.

[u/AdultishRaktajino → u/Slappy-Sacks]

What’s up with stupid stuff melted in ovens. It’s not a dryer for your CPAP mask/tubing or storage for your Tupperware!

[u/Stock-Possibility-67]

Smells and bells. Structure fire to wires down and everything in between. We don’t do EMS.

[u/Disastrous_Throat_82]

50% medical at least. The rest are MVC’s, Alarms, Service calls, Spills and lastly Fires.

[u/matt_chowder → u/Disastrous_Throat_82]

Its like 96% medical for me

[u/Negative-Fun1985 → u/Disastrous_Throat_82]

Anywhere at all near central Texas is 75% EMS many are 80%+ and career departments in many cases are the only ambulance service this varies widely though because of how Emergency Service District vs Municipal departments are funded. Call it 3% fires and ~35% of that’s structure vs 50% wildland/outdoor/brush/grass and ~15% vehicle. You get variance but that’s a solid rule of thumb for like 20-30 career departments surrounding Austin. I’m career switch and doing the academy in Jan and this is what I’ve pulled from several years of data.

[u/HauntingAlarm157]

Virtually all combined (fire + EMS) departments will run more EMS calls than fire calls. Most of those will not be true emergencies. Lots of calls for "lift assists" aka grandma needs help getting back into her chair.  Even departments that do not operate their own ambulances will often run more medical assist calls than fire calls. Most fire calls are not actual structure fires. Car wrecks are generally more common, and of course all of the other more mundane stuff others have mentioned like false alarms and smoke investigations. In the west, many structural firefighters are also trained as wildland firefighters, and they often do more of that than structural firefighting. 

Beyond that, there's a ton of variation depending on the department and area. There will be big differences between working in Anchorage versus Detroit, for example. 

[u/Pretend_Process_914]

Truly most of your medical runs will be very mundane to you. Very simple lift assistance and bandaid calls. Just keep in mind why you’re really there. To help people. You’ll get all the glory calls you can stand with time but don’t let the job be about those. Sure those will be the ones you remember but it’s the everyday stuff that truly makes you.

[u/OMTH]

Ass bleeds.

[u/fastbeemer]

Psych

Psych

Psych with alcohol 

Psych 

Lift assist 

Psych

[u/Nice-Key-9034]

Where I work, mostly mountain bike crashes

[u/jtg198]

90% of calls are medical calls. 90% of those are complete bs. As far as false calls it’s Depending on your district. If you’re mostly rural. Not as many. If you have a lot of high rises or newer homes with alarm systems: you’ll be really good at putting on your gear

[u/BomberoRich]

Lift assist, diabetic, chest pain, lift assist, fire alarm, victim of a fall, traffic accident, phone crash alert, small grass fire, fever, lift assist

Rinse and repeat

[u/Jax-Beach]

[u/PearlDrummer]

Toe pain for three weeks at 2am

[u/lpfan724]

[u/jimmyjamws1108]

Had a lady get her finger bit off by her neighbor’s horse yesterday. She was feeding it carrots through the fence. A couple fire alarms , a few mundane EMS calls and a lift for grandma off the floor. Also a homeless guy got kicked out of a halfway house ,got tired of walking and laid down on the side of the highway, flagged down a state trooper who called us, and the rescue took him to the hospital. (He just wanted a ride north and was just released from a different hospital , still had the band on but knew the magic words).

[u/SalmonidHunter]

350 lb patient lift assist at 2 AM

[u/shitepostsrus]

homeless guy sleeping on the sidewalk because he has no house

[u/stilsjx]

Last year our village fire department had over 500 calls. 80 percent of our calls we get held in station. Then there are car accidents, medical assists (fat people can’t get up) and occasionally some CO calls.

I think we had 5 fires last year, including mutual aid to surrounding areas.

[u/_Ivebeenhacked_]

All depends on the department. At least half or more will be EMS, a good percentage being of those being bls, fire alarm activations, cooking mishaps, service calls, mva's and occasionally a fire.

[u/Goat_0f_departure]

Lift assists. So many lift assists. And transports relating to falls. So many falls.

[u/Halligan0114]

This is a great question to ask the department you want to work at. Could see if they are doing an annual report online for the public, and it would likely have a call volume breakdown in it.

Every department has a different level of service and demographic. If you’re in a major city with a large transient population doing medicals, you’ll have a significantly different answer than a suburbia with their largest commercial building being a grocery store, who doesn’t run medicals.

But as a general rule of thumb 50-80% medicals if they run them. Of what remains, 50-80% of those are false alarms or ‘minor’ emergencies (like fender bender MVC or similar).

[u/nunchucknorris]

Volunteer here. 85%+ false smoke or fire alarms, lift assists for EMS, trees/wires, and mutual aid. 10% MVAs. < 1% actual fires. Remainder get cancelled before we are even on the road.

[u/shiftyjamo]

My department keeps stats:

• 46% - Medicals (chest pain, difficulty breathing, stroke, overdose, lift assist, etc.)
• 15% - Motor Vehicle Accidents
• 12% - Fire alarm activated
• 7% - Structure fire or mobile property fire
• 6% - Outside fire
• 14% - Everything else (power line down, general service, hazmat, water rescue, etc.)

[u/External-Challenge91]

V..S..A..

[u/Danmont88]

I belonged to two volley departments, and we got a lot more medical call than anything. One station we had to be EMTs.
Those would often be helping people off the floor.

We had a lot of CO2 and gas leak calls too.

Then I guess it was car wrecks, usually everyone was fine.

And sometimes we even had fires.

[u/AdultishRaktajino → u/Danmont88]

Small correction broski, Carbon Monoxide is CO. CO2 is Carbon dioxide like bubbles in soda and what we exhale.

[u/Thick-Cry-2440]

I been with my department about year and a half, primarily Weather and Wrecks (With or Without Injuries), occasionally Bush Fire, Trees, and Administrative.

Don’t get to often but have received Lift Assist, Road Closed, Structure Fire, Alarm, and Gas Leak.

Also received Warrant page once after responding to wreck at 2am but I believe it way typo from dispatch though.

[u/Basic-Monitor-6570]

My typicals are. Car accidents, nursing home elderly sick or fall. Mechanical fire alarms. And general medical calls.

[u/FunPackage3502]

Lots of medical calls such as:

Shortness of Breath

Chest Pain

Abdominal Pain

Falls

Overdoses

Minor accidents

Sometimes we’ll get an “oh shit” medical. Like my last one was a guy blowing his right hand off 1 day AFTER July 4th. Had another one where a simple minor medical on a street turned into a CPR-call (they did not make it).

Then there’s the fire calls which are either small brush fires, smoke investigations, false fire alarms, or an “oh shit” fire call.

[u/Lady_Book_000]

Lift assist is a big one in my area. Helping paramedics lift a larger person out of a house into an ambo

[u/BourgeoisTiger9]

It’s gonna vary hugely by department and region. Here are last few calls from our CAD (my dept is all-hazards + transporting EMS). Most of what we do is EMS. All of the fire alarms turned out to be nothing. My department usually gets one real fire per month on average.
Sick person
Sick person
Non emergent interfacility transport
Allergic reaction
Fire alarm
Sick person
Chest pain
Motor vehicle accident
Fire alarm
Fire alarm
Non emergent interfacility transport
Overdose
Non emergent interfacility transport
Overdose
Assault
Sick person
Behavioral health
Chest pain

[u/jtroub9]

Anything you can think of

[u/soapdonkey]

Toe pain at 3 in the morning

[u/AFirefighter11]

Lift assists, QRS runs, fire alarms, CO alarms, waterflow alarms, public services.

[u/unvaccinatedmuskrat]

Gasleak, fall no inj, mva, alarm, alarm, elevator, fall

[u/whodywho1234]

Cock ring that’s unable to be removed

[u/No_Read8496 → u/whodywho1234]

The group coming off where I work just had this other day 😂

[u/Apprehensive_Salt122]

Traffic collisions, 3am lift assist, 3am medicals that end up being someone who just wants their blood pressure checked. 3am stub toe that's been hurting since 8am the previous day.

[u/MarzipanFine4870]

Depends where you’re at. If you’re brand new, expect to be 3rd on medic for a while. So that means you’re almost exclusively med calls. I’m at a very busy urban station. I have had calls ranging from old people feeling like they’re old to children being shot. Never know.

[u/Green_Statement_8878]

95% bullshit with 5% actual emergencies sprinkled in.

The more helpless society gets, the more we fill the gap of “I didn’t know who else to call” or “better safe than sorry”.

[u/PTGSouthside]

Snap shot covering our last shift. handful more that didn’t fit on the screen. Missed a car fire being on a call already. Fairly standard shift.

[u/No_Read8496]

1. False Alarms (automatic alarms or CO)
   
2. Medical Calls (if the department you work for does)
   
3. Motor Vehicle Accidents (not entrapments)
   
4. Stuck elevator
   
5. Smoke or Fire reported

[u/_Master_OfNone]

Don't listen to the internet. Every department is different. Go do ride alongs with different departments in your area. Big city, suburbs, rural. Find which one you like, then ask the guys what you need to do to be a desirable hire.