My county is always looking for volunteers (we have a mostly volunteer force). I did a night with them on a "ride along". Basically see if you like it and then sign up. (I sign more paperwork for a PCA DE than this event....actually I signed nothing). I signed up for a Friday. We rode in the truck, ate dinner, had some ice cream, run the hose cannon, washed the truck and basically waited for something to happen. We responded to various calls:
- a guy looped his civic on a country road and the police took him to jail for DUI
- a townhouse fire that really was a false alarm....the other company got their first. The burning I smelled was the truck trying to brake from 60 mph!
- an accident where a family with a little baby was rear ended. We were the first responders till the police showed up.
I thought it seemed like a fun job until I went home and really thought about it. Nobody was hurt and one dumb ass went to jail. What if it went down different? Like the family down the street from me that lost their house when it burned to the ground. What if that baby got hurt? I couldn't handle that ****. No way. I'm glad that there are people that can do that job. It's a hullava adreneline rush on the way there, but I couldn't do it.