r/Firefighting • u/Peaches0k Texas FF/EMT/HazMat Tech • Jan 22 '25

General Discussion Reasons For Calls

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Saw someone ask what all we do besides fire. Here’s a list the shifts add to for dumb calls. It was started a few months ago

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u/FederalAmmunition Jan 22 '25

Structure fire that turned out to be a fish tank light reflection on the wall

I love the fire service

34

u/sucksatgolf Overpaid janitor 🧹 Jan 22 '25

There is an infamous call in my department back in the 80s where we went for a fire in a garden style apartment on the ground floor. The guy who was first in is a known basket case/ cowboy/ lunatic. I dont know what the reasoning is on why they didn't stretch a line or why he was by himself (he was never an officer or IC). A lot of the specifics have been lost over time, but this guy tossed like a 150 gallon fish tank on a couch and clothes on fire. Incident was over after that.

26

u/Njquil Jan 22 '25

God I fuckin love stories like this that get passed down through generations and snowball bigger every time it’s told.

One guy threw 1200 pounds of water from a fish tank onto a fire? The same guy was also clairvoyant and somehow knew the apartment had a big ass fish tank in it?

9

u/sucksatgolf Overpaid janitor 🧹 Jan 22 '25

🤣 yeah that math ain't working. Tipped it over? 12 gallons? I dunno. Maybe it was built in? That was popular in the 80s.