Thoughts for EMS and First Responders in St. Louis

[EMSComeLately]

I went to the EMS academy at the hospital run ambulance service that services the Ferguson area. Regardless of the upcoming announcement, I just want to give positive thoughts for the safety of all of our EMS partners and other first responders that may have to perform their duties in a difficult environment.

Of course, the same goes out to any other cities where protests are planned and hope that peace prevails.

 

[OnceAnEMT]

Here's to hoping for a safe night for everyone involved.

I am curious if there are any First Responders from the area on this forum. Obviously we might not see many comments tonight, but it would be great to get some first-hand input (I believe some folks had commented in previous threads about the area).

In particular, I am curious about dispatcher's comments. Are people calling 911, flagging down police, or just shrugging things off? Any specific things being advised?

 

[samiam]

I can only imagine. The news was going crazy this morning with the fires and protests. The fire department has beem stretched thin and there has been a lot of violence against the first responders working to put out the fires and helping the injured.

 

[johnrsemt]

Never understand the attitude "Bad things happen here in our hood, so lets destroy all the businesses in the hood" then they get upset because no businesses move back to the hood.

 

[MonkeyArrow]

I watched the announcement at 9 ET all the way through the aftermath at 1 am ET last night on CNN. The first responders were just overcome. You can't put out a fire when there a people shooting guns and throwing rocks. From what I saw, the first responders had to wait until the riot police moved their defense lines up past the fire building to shield the first responders. And even then, there were too many fires for the resources available to get to the scene. As for EMS, I saw none. I would suppose they stayed hidden and would only go anywhere with a police escort.

 

[OnceAnEMT]

I watched the announcement at 9 ET all the way through the aftermath at 1 am ET last night on CNN. The first responders were just overcome. You can't put out a fire when there a people shooting guns and throwing rocks. From what I saw, the first responders had to wait until the riot police moved their defense lines up past the fire building to shield the first responders. And even then, there were too many fires for the resources available to get to the scene. As for EMS, I saw none. I would suppose they stayed hidden and would only go anywhere with a police escort.

Yeah, I got back just in time to see the prosecuter enter the room and thought I'd watch it just until he finished, then the reactions came, and then midnight came. It is unbelievable how fast and uncontrollable the escalation of the crowd was.

I saw the same. At one point very late in the game Fire was able to get to the first cruiser that was on fire, but then gun fire started up again so they pulled out. I didn't see them again before I went to bed. At no point did I see EMS, but I feel that there may have been a tactical paramedic within the police lines. Or perhaps I'm just hoping there was.

 

[MonkeyArrow]

But after yesterday, I only realized just how detached I am from thing going on. I listen to and watch the news, and am pretty good about current events. But, the initial Ferguson protests when Mike Brown was killed. I read about those, yeah, ok. Moved on. Only after watching the live coverage and seeing the continued destruction in real time did the magnitude of the situation actually dawn upon me.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

I used to be in that area, left around 2011. Violence against Fire/EMS is nothing new in that area, especially north county (where Ferguson is) and East St. Louis. They have some pretty good staging protocols in place. All my buddies out there have reassured me that they are staying safe!

They actually are more apt to stage there than every other department I've been on since there. A lot of the times I get funny looks for staging but it's just second nature to me now to not go on anything that sounds suspicious. The people there don't just dislike like cops, but a lot of people (yes I know i'm generalizing here) have a lot of issues with authority figures and and Fire/EMS can often seem too "official" and therefore are targeted. Someone floated an idea that the Fire/EMS guys might actually be safer if they wore jeans around like how some volunteer departments do...