THE CALL - Official Firefighting Documentary

This is not This is not a five o'clock news story about the local fire department. I only know how to be honest with people when I talk about the fire service, so this is a raw conversation. What space my brother? What we do is special when the air brake of the truck activates and you open the door, you are going, it is something terribly beautiful, it is chaos and peace, it is something that we would not want to live with them, but sometimes it is the hardest thing I have ever experienced. taught to be a firefighter.

There are so many things in my life that I don't know what I would do. My name is Caleb Shale and I am a volunteer firefighter at the Rutgers Well Virginia station. These are my brothers. These are some of the kids I've been through during the toughest times. days this is our story Andrew McDaniel firefighter/emt I've been here since July 2015, so we're going to spend about three and a half years in a box in Sean Ryan, 26, I'm the boss here at Rutgers, a little volunteer. fire company, uh, Mike Thompson, they

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me around 24 years old.

This particular fire station is very interesting, so describe it as an anomaly. We are relatively busy. We consistently make between one thousand and one thousand two hundred

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s a year. 40 and 50 work structure fires a year, you know, not a single month goes by that we don't have a real work incident, so to speak, we cover about 14,000 residents who are at our maximum capacity, so to speak, we have everything , from country houses, old farms, three or four story apartment buildings and multi-million dollar mansions, so our first job is so diverse that you don't know what you'll get at any given time.

We've had some of our wildest weekends. On the weekends here, in 48 hours, they made 86 calls and did not leave the platform during all that time between fires. Structural weed lines for vehicles, so it is a busy house for the size. A little more than a dozen firefighters are all the active members that normally I have to execute these two and they take them all out. One of the factors behind this film specifically has been an accumulation of the fatal fires we've had over the last five years and seeing how the brothers at this station responded to that and then even more recently the mill fire Matthew, Nancy Mill Road, through three fire stations with Iroquois trail structure, two, one, three and four.

First, when I arrived on the scene, I took heavy fire that pushed Alpha Charlie and Delta to the south of the building to transmit. I'm going down that hill, I got it, it backed up because of a driver, what you need is an instrument of God and he now comes water. The fire at Matthew's mill at five in the morning resulted in a fire in the church, reported that people were trapped. God, I see. Well, I came down here, skip to 23. I was in the platform office that night. McDaniel was in the back, in the front, driving.

Firm reports of three people trapped, one minor and two, two adults, who did not know exactly where they were robbed in the area. the fire was already engulfed in that house, we had a firm hold on corner alpha Bravo in the basements of a split level house, so my 360 degree turn was literally rejected by the fire, I literally had to run and go to put on the mask and then come back. and I grab my gloves and my hook at that moment I saw him go to the front door with the hand line I told him since most of the fire was in the back of the house hey and the other hand line on Charlie's side , we have confirmed reports that they were right inside that window, we spent a lot of time in that room trying to find them, we didn't find anyone mcdhh Andy, he was the first and then I was the second.

He was overcome by the fire, we're at At this point we're yelling at the hit on the radio for a hand line because it was getting bad they brought us a hand light to the window he grabbed the hand line and we tried to make the push we did the push pick the door to that room and we got hit again and we finally got through it we pushed it down we found a bedroom on the left um I couldn't see anything I knew there was a fire right there I mean I was a around us, more or less as if you were literally walking into a fire. pit, that's pretty much what we were and the fire was everywhere, he was everywhere, it was really just us in the scene for a good 10 minutes, 5, 10 minutes at least and getting there, I mean , there are paint cans exploding, for some reason there were a bunch of cars back there. and they all caught fire and then the tires blew out and the magnesium came off and all sorts of things where car horns got stuck, but that's okay, leaves are one of those things where you just have to resort to your training. and, like at that moment, I I mean, we were scratching and everything he does, it sounds like it wasn't too much, but it was almost everyone like three hours, she's going to go, anything was gone and then, while I looked around, the first floor was deteriorating.

I was already partially collapsed and was getting closer and closer, so I, as the officer that night, had to make the decision. Hey, I remember specifically. I looked at him and told him we had to go out. I mean, again, we're not here to play God, but I made the call to keep my guys alive and so I made the decision to back out and then come back with another team, a handful of us, you know, on the first end, the motor company gave it their all, you know, they told us that I know, hey, there are three people inside this house and we found multiple ways to get in, we finally got in and like I said, just keep working and push and push and push and it got to the point where they had to pull you out of a window and the guys were freaking out because we were gassing ourselves to a level that people had never seen before and we were exhausted after that, when Andy and I came out they carried us around the window and thank God for that. because my body my body was ready to give up but after that you know they just deteriorated from there a lot of live tears I understand you saying failure in my mind a deadly house fire has claimed the lives of three people this morning in the Greene County The flames have been put out with the investigation into what caused the fire continuing This is what it looked like before Smoke still billowing from the roof of that home The aggressive fire broke out around 5:00 a.m. on Matthew Mill Road, which is just off Route 607 over half a dozen fire companies had to be called to help with that fire.

Some firefighters even suffered burns all over their equipment while trying to rescue others. I was leaving work and I arrived at the scene and I remember looking at everyone and I had you guys. I know some of the greatest men, some of the toughest Jakes I've ever worked with. I mean, they have their heads down, you know, they're crying, they have masks, they have gloved hands, and they're comforting each other. I remember being obsessed because there was a bandage on the floor, just a standard wrapped bandage that someone had taken off of me and I didn't really think much about it until I started talking to the guys.

I just shut him down and told him I loved him. let's get over it hello and I kept doing it and then I saw he had this bandage in his hand, it was wrapped up and I asked him, I told him what happened, he told me he had burned himself and you know they were trying. rescue and suffered burns and I asked him about the bandage on the floor, he said boss, we still had fire to fight, the doctors told me I couldn't go back in with the bandage, so I took it off and I just remember.

That was because I was trying to hold back my tears to stay strong for my boys, but I remember thinking that we have such a brotherhood that he is going to suffer these burns, ignore his pain, put them back to be with his boys and finish this mission. and at that moment it was digging up, you know, a little boy and two other victims with his bare hands and I just remember seeing them and how powerful it was that day, it made so many things feel small and the things to focus on just lit up so bright. immediate and the feeling of sadness was almost taken away from me by the feeling of pride that I had and just seeing the compassion and these guys is everything we just talked about.

I got the witness, you know, none of these guys were embarrassed. I mean, these are great Jakes, these are firefighter guys, these are the guys you want at a fire and they're all, they all felt devastated because they all felt like they failed and it was amazing to see them come together and I think that stuck. For me, more than almost any fatal fire, that impact is still with me and gives me some peace when I think about times when I felt like I failed. You know, I felt like a victim. I felt like a family.

I failed a son. mother daughter, it gives me a lot of peace. I wasn't on that call, I wasn't actually available to take that call. I was in the county and couldn't respond, I picked up my radio and was listening to radio traffic. I chose to do that and it was hard to hear what your brothers are going through and not be able to help them, it was an experience I had never had before and I could hear when they couldn't get in and I could hear when they had to shoot and they were recovering the bodies that they couldn't get out and that was difficult.

I think I had a lot of guilt for not being there and working for it was a challenge, but like many these things go after time and we talked about it and we came together as a community in this fire station, we understood that you know this is part of this . I don't think we've talked about PTSD in Los Angeles because it's an uncomfortable topic. I think a lot of us, myself included, I think I was raised with we don't talk about our feelings, you know, jobs are hard, rookie, get over it, you'll see things at work, rookie, you gotta move on, you gotta find ways . deal with it, so we're almost taught from a young age, you're going to see things, it's going to be difficult, you have to find ways to deal with it, so we almost feel like we've been conditioned that we've seen those things.

I don't need to talk about it, it's accepted, what do you want to do, rookie, you want to leave, you know, so I think at the beginning of many careers in the fire service, it's conditioned within us that we shouldn't do it. let's talk about it and here now that we are shedding light on this, like I said, a lot of good people have lost their lives because of PTSD because it wasn't treated recently, a friend of mine committed suicide because of this, so I think it has It's time to make sure he can raise his hand and speak when you come up with this topic.

You always waited for it. Guys who have been at this for a while always tell you this. This is what you're going to see, this is what you're going to do and well, they tell us that you know something is bothering you, you open up about it, like you don't want to, you feel scared or maybe they're going to judge you. So you keep it internal and move on and sometimes some people figure it out for themselves and other times they get the ultimate sacrifice. I think we're so used to being the ones helping people, so we don't do it. comfortable or ready to always be helped or even recognize our need to be helped, I mean, when you are mentally trained over and over again that I am the one who helps, I am the one who serves, I am the one who goes out and help this person then you close that pathway in your brain of needing help, being helped or being in trouble, we train very hard, we work very hard here, we pride ourselves on the fact that we are rare ones who enter.

We're being aggressive, we're proactive on every call and we don't usually lose when we fight, we fight to win and we're not used to losing and that's how we see it as we need help, which is how it is sometimes. is losing, so it's that kind of mentality. I think people avoid seeking help a lot. We are macho men. We write really type A personalities. We don't worry about our feelings. We try not to do it. I'm talking about tradition and the fire service. You're always told to just hang in there, keep going and you'll get better, so I guess that's part of the tradition of the fire services, well, keep it in, bottle it up, what's next, because that's what we've always done. what we will always continue doing and with that we have only now come out with studies and everything that many of you were afraid to talk about because you don't want to appear weak in front of your already know.

Other people are definitely aware that sometimes we will fall short. I mean, I said we fight to win, but we know that not everything is under our control and I think there is a time to cry and there is a time to hug. your brother, but at the end of the day we have to pack up and go back. We're supposed to be the strong firefighters who arrive on the scene. Almost like a job, we are supposed to live with the trauma of others and sometimes yours. We know that our wells fill up, everyone fights in silence and almost feels that we do not have many people to turn to or we do not believe that anyone would understand if we go to them or we believe that we are going to show weakness by going to someone or they think that they are going to put us in the call, the psychological wait.

I think it's still a taboo topic to mention that, boss, this call bothered me,boss, I'm not sleeping or I just went to a lieutenant, lieutenant. That call bothered me. Many people do not understand what firefighters, doctors, everything we all go through in public safety and many times they almost start the conversation with what is the worst. Call, have you ever run and someone asked me that a while ago and I just asked them Frank, do you want me to relive my ongoing nightmares for your entertainment and it was like they took it back like, oh wait, what's it like?

We know the things that we see, I mean we see the end of life quite a bit.often sometimes it's traumatic sometimes it's peaceful sometimes it's barbaric so it's an area that we don't talk about because it's just not out there everyone knows the army there are consequences when joining there will be death there will be carnage I will lose friends, but here lately I want to say that we have up to 72 firefighters killed in the line of duty, it is a dangerous job, we see all kinds of atrocities and we learn in the fire station, so that if you have a culture of calm newbie treatment.

That doesn't end well, so you want to try to build that culture of hey, lieutenant, can I step aside for a minute? Know? I never really thought that I personally would be affected by PTSD. I always told myself that I was too young in my five-year career, so it's not like it's been a long time, so I always told myself that yes, once you know that at the end of your career maybe You can look back and I had some tough times but I always thought I was too young and it wasn't until May 2018 of this year that I had my first experience with it and after that it solidified as yes this is something I want to get It helps me and my brothers, so that's been the driving force.

Three years ago I was diagnosed with PTSD and I like to think I made it. There are already specific sounds that almost cause me to boil kettles with any type of shouting, many things make me angry because those shouts are what bring me back to my mother's screams, passersby shout those things because they know they just lost their loved one. every call I take like those fatal house fires fatal car accidents anything of that nature a small part of them stays with me almost as if the pain of some of the victims is transferred to me and I carry it with me for the rest of my life. career, you know, I think for a long time I wouldn't have put a name to it, I just think.

It was just you know, a hazard of the job, it's just things that have come back to catch me and revisit them, but after talking to a doctor a few years ago and hearing it out loud, it's easier to accept and understand. I'm not crazy that it's normal, it makes sense that in this race you're going to have those obstacles at night, we've been told to open up about it, talk about it and especially use the guys that were there. the call and talk to them, just share your experiences, so a lot of guys have noticed that I sit down and actually just make some notes about a call and from time to time they can revisit it if they feel like it. bothers. them and you know it's hard to say why that helps you, but surprisingly it does.

I think what we need to raise awareness about PTSD is to simply educate people about the basics, educate the volunteer firefighter's family about what to expect when coming into contact with the firefighter, how to have a conversation with them, and knowing what is at stake at all levels, so I think education is the main goal. What I'm looking for is to educate the public about what a volunteer firefighter has to do, I mean it's not a career, we make calls and we take time out of our lives to come here and it's a very interesting dynamic because we still have other jobs. , whether it's a professional fire somewhere. otherwise or if it will be a different field if we are not at work and we come to make a call, you know, if that call can last an hour or two hours, we are in a very intense situation for that couple of hours and then we have We have to separate ourselves from that world and go to work and I think sometimes that can be a challenge for other people to understand what we go through to just go to work, but then two hours before you know see someone suffer or go to extreme measures. and then just getting out of that and getting to work, so I think educating people about what volunteer firefighters do and then how they process things if you run that call sometimes it's not even that call in your mind, but it's a call that maybe it was emotionally draining maybe someone died maybe it was just a big fire with a lot of people coming in and getting stressed I think that quick check even just a hand on the shoulder bro you're doing good and then moving on there in the fire station, hey bro, you're doing good, maybe the next day you'll look a little bad man, did you sleep well, did you, you need to talk, you need to do it, don't push so hard that you want to push them away, but you want to start see those changes and start working on those changes.

We had a few incidents and no one wanted to talk about it, so what we ended up doing was just taking a trip to Kings Dominion and we went to spend a weekend there. there was no need to wire us we're leaving for the weekend everyone knew everyone needed a reset we're getting away from the pagers we're getting away from the radios we're getting out of the county so there's no obligation there's no feeling like we have to run this call boss they were on three hours away, guys, this one's not ours, this one, we'll take it from here, let's restart so we can recognize as boss, meet my people.

When something bothers me, I recognize that those behavioral changes are very important to me. I almost feel an obligation not to disappoint them, because I don't want them sitting alone in their room wondering what's next. Can you make this next call and not? I don't want us to dwell on it, you know, every day. I want us to recognize that it's part of our career, it's part of the life we ​​choose, but if we support each other, we can get through this and we can get the help we need we can move forward and continue doing the best work in the world.

I volunteered because if I don't, who will? And I see that I have a very valuable skill set. I have something to give away, if you don't want to sound cheesy. I have a skill set that benefits others and I have a mindset that allows me to work with others to keep the public, we have a motto here is for them and I can portray it, so when these volunteers come in, there is no pay in these long hours without I pay for hard work and they do it because they are selfless and want to help and we have by far some of the best in the business here.

I've worked with some great pro departments and I wouldn't trade any of these guys and they do it because they are all tough and compassionate and at any moment they will risk their personal safety for someone else, probably the best Brotherhood I could say, I mean we hang out. The side where we party together, we go out, we help each other if someone is moving and we help them if someone is down, we talk to him things like that, so we do a lot of things outside of the fire service with each other, that's just an extension of the entire family pretty much down to almost everything you know, whether some people go deer hunting and others golf and snowboard, do all kinds of random things, yeah, deep down we're all driven by what yourself and you know it's guaranteed and the job is. "To help the community, but maybe there's something more to it, maybe a little more personal, maybe it gives everyone a sense of purpose.

It's given me a sense of purpose. I'm a volunteer firefighter because this is the best job you can do in the world. You can't get over this, you can't get over it, the things you can do, the things you can see, yes, there is a lot of pain, there is a lot of injury and trauma that we see, but you can also see the faces of hope and you. Just watch the courage of your brothers and you can be part of something much bigger than yourself. I just wake up and not and tell myself how blessed I am every day to be able to be in the fire service. this job and it's something I want to be in my life for as long as I can.

I look at them all and remind them that this is not because of the shirt, you are here, you are going to work many hours, this is one of the last, there are few manual jobs that you can access without being trained, you could be a pizza maker in a minute and a firefighter in the next. next we are public safety we are public servants we owe everything to the citizens of this county we owe everything to the citizens of the city you serve we are here for them they are not here for us it is our job to make sure we provide the highest level of service possible and at any time you have to be willing to risk everything for someone else things you don't know and maybe don't like, but this is what you're signed up for, whether your career is voluntary, you took this position voluntarily and you remember that this job was what you know and you owe it to everything, a call comes in, a truck comes out with red blue lights and a siren sound that raises so quickly because they innovate in times like this every second counts consumed by the fear and smoky tears families pray for their loved ones as they rush without hesitation to seek strength in a house fire no matter the day no matter the I am without delay they get into the car our extraordinary men and women more with courage and service selfless under the flames they risked it all they answer the call the victim screams to chase their dreams because once you I've heard them, they can't, but still they fight to save our lives, no one if they died, it would all be worth it for their mana the day, no matter the, but now the delay in which they respond to the car are extraordinary men and women, one with courage and selflessness. service and in the flames risking everything I answer the car sir the car the blood runs deep the pop station loses or wins they endure the time no matter the day no matter the extraordinary car while with bravery and selfless service in the flames you skin it in the call oh they answer the car they answer the car Oh