New Day , New Challenges

If anyone wants, you can click on the "situations" for a link to an article on the 3 day brush fire.

New Day Dawns -

The promotional ceremony went fine, being that it was the morning after my first shift in FCC, (the 911 center for dispatch of alarms) as well as a 24 hour shift, I cleaned up nicely (!) and with Lady C by my side, anything is possible.

First day highlights were numerous. The start of a (now) 3 day brush fire in Nanakuli, a drowning off shore with a diver and his buddy, a DOA car accident in the same area as the brush fire (at the same time practically), a diver coming in with the bends off of the North Shore, a hiker rescue up on Diamond Head ( with the crew I shoulda been on), plenty of medical calls.

Like I said; new challenges, abound.

Eh.

Not that I do not appreciate the assignment, the promotion, or the pay raise. It is just that when you are used to busting ass physically, doing it mentally becomes a whole new ballgame. The good stuff still out weighs the bad, as I was volunteered to FCC in 2000, it isn't like fresh meat to the wolves, so to speak.

So tales told will be more memory, and the current will probably be a bit more cerebral. Not that they wont be fun, for sure. The concious ones, that is.

24 hours in a basement, answering 911 calls, thrills ... (not) But yet it is. There is a line that comes into play as a servant to the public. You are charged with the assignment to help. That assignment may change over the course of a career, and not always what you want. It does not lessen the importance of the service. It just, arrggggh, is a change.

Slapping on turnouts, the rush of the alarm, getting there, doing our thing, Helping. It just takes a different view, I guess. I already miss the adrenaline flow of it. There is a rush in FCC, but mental kind. I remember it from 2000, the calls that are connect from EMS, the need to co-respond by us, with them. Be it a auto accident, or what have you.

They stick in the brain matter, too.

EMS connects the call to us, the address flashed upon a screen. Anyones address. The phone #. The name. You can at times, hear in the background the callers to EMS, talking, or hysterical, crying, etc. The sticking part comes when you never find out how it turned out.

A call came, and all I heard in the background was, hopelessness. A child was not breathing. The mother was on the line, just, well, whimpering in fear. I could not disconnect the call. Even tho' we are supposed to. For whatever reason, I had to hear. The EMS dispatcher was instructing the mom on what to do for pediatric CPR. Dont take this wrong - but-

Helluva time to learn.

She was so calm. She instructed, guided, soothed, assured. I was in awe. On the other line, I dialed the company that was assigned, informed them what the situation was, and knew the guys would holo-holo ( get there fast). Another call comes in, forced to disconnect.

Never knowing if the little one made it, remains imbedded.

Situations.

You gotta do what you gotta do.

Aloha.