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Ode to the 4th of July

 I think everyone who works in public safety will agree there are holidays you don't mind working, while others you dread.   The 4th of July is one you really cannot ever bet on being the same.   The law enforcement side we get all sorts of driving complaints, family disputes, alcohol induced fights, child disputes and vehicle accidents related to alcohol.   And on the medical and fire side we often see overlapping issues from accidents, and fights, to those involving issues from firework related accidents.


Some years back I had taken a call from the ambulance crew who was staged at one of the local fire works displays.  It was when they radioed I knew something was wrong.   The traffic was to relay that they were going to make there way through the crowd towards an area where a firework had been misguided and instead of going up and went horizontal and into the crowd.   The result was several people getting burned.  The resulting burns were not all that serious, but it caught some sort of material on fire that a family was sitting on.   I believe there was a suit filed in court and a family did get a payout for the medical bills for their child.

This weekend I took another off the wall, unreal type call.  The caller had heard squealing tires and a noise like a vehicle was involved in an accident but had not observed the vehicle.  I sent the appropriate response, law enforcement, ems and fire.  The responding fire units questions the directions, the ambulance was first to arrive in the area and begin searching.   They located a vehicle parked in a driveway which was secured, had no broken glass and appeared to have rolled.   They were missing a patient though.   Additional responding units arrived and assisted in attempting to locate the driver.   At some point the other law enforcement agency must have made contact by phone and determined the driver had left the scene.  They had the vehicle towed and continued searching nearby for the driver.    The thing that totally confused me is how the caller who was inside had heard the accident when measured out on the map the distance was well over 2000 feet.  I guess the caller could have had his windows open and the sound really carried.

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