Illinois firefighters stand idle while man drowns [VIDEO]

[bolil]

"FIRE FIGHTER" implies their paid to fight fires. Not to save dumb asses doing dumb stuff. He should have know the risk of walking onto the ice and should have had an emergency plan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P531IaBGRHU

ITS A HUMAN THING. Drowning human in the cold, 20-30 ft from shore? What do you do? Wait 30 min and deploy a fuckin raft? Or, take the rope out of your tricked out, and evidently useless fucking truck and throw it too the man. Or, as I would have done, tied one end to a vehicle, the other to my waste, and another to lasso/Hesecure drowning man with. would I have gone hypothermic? Yeah, but the 30 seconds it would take me to get to the man and another 15-20 getting dragged out would not be enough time, unless we are talking -50 or less, to do any permanent damage. Blame who you want, if the man was irrational going out on the ice the fire flighters were retarded in their chosen method of rescue. PERIOD. PERIOD>

 

[jcannon98188]

"FIRE FIGHTER" implies their paid to fight fires. Not to save dumb asses doing dumb stuff. He should have know the risk of walking onto the ice and should have had an emergency plan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P531IaBGRHU

Charge them for the crap. Fine. But going in there to save someone would have not taken any money what so ever.

 

[bolil]

Charge them WITH negligent manslaughter. You likey the state? Enjoy how it rides us for your benifeit? I hope you've appropriated a nice saddle for yourself.

addressed to rationalizing apologist. You know who you are.

 

[AGRP]

everyone is so quick to bash them. yet no one stops to think, wtf was he doing ont he ice in the first place?

Playing ice hockey? Tiddlywinks? Going through a traumatic event? Maybe a relative or beloved pet died and he wasnt thinking rationally? Should they have asked so they could decide if his life was worth saving?

 

[Pauls' Revere]

like a mystery shopper, he was hired by a local insurance group to test the first responders of the area.
they hadn't planned on there being no rescue. though the FD did get high marks for response time... the follow-through was lacking.

I'm sure they set up a committee to review policy to make further changes to it to include ice rescue.

 

[bolil]

Everyone else is being nice, maybe I am just a nasty person but I would like to throw every public servant on the scene that day, parent or not, into lake Michigan and simply video tape what happens. Maybe even coat them in whatever asian carp like to eat so they don't clog up the water pumps.

 

[Tpoints]

how can anybody complain if they were not there? Ok, so somebody responded and arrived and did nothing, what about the other people? Were they stopped from or not allowed to jump in?

 

[Ender]

"FIRE FIGHTER" implies their paid to fight fires. Not to save dumb asses doing dumb stuff. He should have know the risk of walking onto the ice and should have had an emergency plan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P531IaBGRHU

Let us pray that YOU never do anything dumb in your life, 'cause karma's a bitch.

 

[jcannon98188]

Playing ice hockey? Tiddlywinks? Going through a traumatic event? Maybe a relative or beloved pet died and he wasnt thinking rationally? Should they have asked so they could decide if his life was worth saving?

What if it was an elderly person who was confused? Should we just let them die as well? What if it was a small child, or someone who was not mentally sane. What if somthing scared him onto the ice. What if he dropped something important to him that he was trying to retrieve? What if it was you or someone you loved on the ice? If we are going to trust the government to save us, then they better do their job!

(this isn't pointed to AGRP, I was simply continuing what he had to say)

 

[bolil]

how can anybody complain if they were not there? Ok, so somebody responded and arrived and did nothing, what about the other people? Were they stopped from or not allowed to jump in?

Watch the video.

 

[QuickZ06]

how can anybody complain if they were not there? Ok, so somebody responded and arrived and did nothing, what about the other people? Were they stopped from or not allowed to jump in?

How can someone complain about "complainers" when they have yet to watch the video and read the article?

 

[nobody's_hero]

It's America. And people are people. Lots of us are idiots, or at least do idiotic things on occasion. You guys get paid to deal with that. Nothing more.

Well I didn't. I was a volunteer. But really pay doesn't have anything to do with whether or not you are mortal, lol.

Vol. Firefighters go through the same risk-assessment training that paid departments do (at least where I'm from). We don't have death wishes just because we do it for free. And paid departments don't get issued death warrants just because they're paid.

I would encourage everyone who is a critic (or not a critic) to try to find a volunteer fire department and join up. It was a great experience for me.

But I have to warn you that you will encounter situations where you make mistakes, your plans fail, maybe even situations where you can't do anything (like watching a guy burn up in a fuel tanker fire, because the cab and trailer of his semi-truck is fully involved and burns so hot that liquid evaporates before it even hits the fire). And there are even times when you have to clean up your gear at a scene admidts the mumbles and hisses of bystanders who always think they could do a better job.

Heck. I distinctly recall one incident where we saved an old couple's back-yard garage, and then got complaints from them because our rig left 8-inch-deep treadmarks in their lawn. Fun times.

 

[psi2941]

Let us pray that YOU never do anything dumb in your life, 'cause karma's a bitch.

1. As a hockey player who played for 13+ years I would never go into any pond/lake ice. They have ice rinks for a reason its only like 4-5 dollars to skate. If you can't afford that you shouldn't be skating at all. 2. I wouldn't expect the fire department to have a boat on their fire truck. To me, 1 hour is perfectly reasonable, how is a fire department who preps to fight fire going need have a boat ready? Your right i might do something dumb down the line that should be my fault not some other guy.

This whole thread, everyone is quick to jump on the band wagon and blame the government. But what happen to personal responsibility? its like blaming guns for the mass murders.

 

[osan]

Simple. Every day I carry a 100ft rope in my work truck, and a spare set of clothes. I would have tied one end off on a drain grate or maybe had some big guy tie it to his waist, Tied the other end to my waist, and shimmied my way out. When I get to the guy, say "Hold on to me" while I hand over hand it back to shore. I wouldn't consider it heroic at all. Fairly mundane actually. Change into dry clothes, grab a cup of hot beverage at that McDonald's I see across the street, and back to work.

Yes, but then you would have made the "pros" look bad and would have been charged with interfering. Local opinion of you as a hero would have meant nothing and "government" would have then proceeded to teach you a bitter lesson in the production of redundant anuses.

This nation is SO loused up in its thinking anymore that it is mind-numbing. We desperately need something to hit that "reset" button. A ten meter meteorite on London would be a great​ start.

 

[osan]

Your "big guy" just stepped up to hold on to that line and haul your asses back.

And buy the coffee.

Free men.

Indeed. It leaves me to wonder, however, how the cops would respond. Would they taze you or dispense with all pretenses and shoot you dead for interfering with an "op"?

Far too many Americans are in need of a moral compass and the growing of a pair of balls... even if only small ones. Even a little is better than nothing.

 

[newbitech]

Very crapily written article, but...

“They followed our ice rescue guidelines pretty much to a T,” Champaign Deputy Fire Chief Eric Mitchell told The News Gazette.“They established command … they made visual contact and attempted to talk to him, threw rescue devices, and went on the water,” he said. “Going on the water is the last thing you want to do. They did all the other things first.”

cept one minor detail, WHERE YOU ACTUALLY RESCUE THE GUY BEFORE HE DIES! sorry, but LOL, to a T? And of course they did all the other things first, but the deputy chief makes it sound like "establishing command", "making visual contact", and "attempting to talk" are things that would/should/could be done as an alternative to saving this man!

 

[Nirvikalpa]

What if it was an elderly person who was confused? Should we just let them die as well? What if it was a small child, or someone who was not mentally sane. What if somthing scared him onto the ice. What if he dropped something important to him that he was trying to retrieve? What if it was you or someone you loved on the ice? If we are going to trust the government to save us, then they better do their job!

(this isn't pointed to AGRP, I was simply continuing what he had to say)

You can point out all this ridiculous hypotheticals, but that's not what happened.

Well I didn't. I was a volunteer. But really pay doesn't have anything to do with whether or not you are mortal, lol.

Vol. Firefighters go through the same risk-assessment training that paid departments do (at least where I'm from). We don't have death wishes just because we do it for free. And paid departments don't get issued death warrants just because they're paid.

I would encourage everyone who is a critic (or not a critic) to try to find a volunteer fire department and join up. It was a great experience for me.

But I have to warn you that you will encounter situations where you make mistakes, your plans fail, maybe even situations where you can't do anything (like watching a guy burn up in a fuel tanker fire, because the cab and trailer of his semi-truck is fully involved and burns so hot that liquid evaporates before it even hits the fire). And there are even times when you have to clean up your gear at a scene admidts the mumbles and hisses of bystanders who always think they could do a better job.

Heck. I distinctly recall one incident where we saved an old couple's back-yard garage, and then got complaints from them because our rig left 8-inch-deep treadmarks in their lawn. Fun times.

Amen. +rep. So easy to be a critic when you're sitting behind a computer screen.

I love the collectivism of the OP in regards to all first responders.

 

[green73]

I love the collectivism of the OP in regards to all first responders.

I love how you say love when you when you really don't love.

 

[jj-]

I love how you say love when you when you really don't love.

nirvifatbottom's signature looks like someone with histrionic personality disorder

 

[specsaregood]

This would have been a much better story if one of the people went and actually did something while the firefighters and cops just stood there

You mean like this guy:
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_15278256

Raft guide arrested after helping stranded rafter on Clear Creek

Clear Creek sheriff's deputies on Thursday arrested a rafting guide for swimming to a stranded young rafter who had tumbled from his boat on Clear Creek.

Ryan Daniel Snodgrass, a 28-year-old guide with Arkansas Valley Adventures rafting company, was charged with "obstructing government operations," said Clear Creek Sheriff Don Krueger.

"He was told not to go in the water, and he jumped in and swam over to the victim and jeopardized the rescue operation," said Krueger, noting that his office was deciding whether to file similar charges against another guide who was at the scene just downstream of Kermitts Roadhouse on U.S. 6.

Duke Bradford, owner of Arkansas Valley Adventures, said Snodgrass did the right thing by contacting the 13-year-old Texas girl immediately and not waiting for the county's search and rescue team to assemble ropes, rafts and rescuers.