ENGINE COMPANY 84: Tactical 84 responds to a car in the water...

Yesterday seemed to be a fairly busy day for the city. For Ladder 84 it began with a working building fire on the south side of Indy's famous west borough. Engine 84, however, wasn't invited. There was an accident on I-465 involving a semi which turned into working haz-mat spill, a fatality accident to the northwest, a shooting on the near west side and a semi fire which shut down I-65. Engine 84's day didn't really start until the evening when we responded with Ladder 84 as Tactical 84 for a vehicle in the water.

As we responded toward the pond in the Darby Court apartments life vests and ice suits were put on, radios were set and the traffic on 10th street was parted. Speedway's FD arrived first and established command then Tac 84 arrived to set up rescue operations. We received dive teams from Pike and IFD. Working together, assisted by accounts from witnesses, the vehicle was found thirteen feet below the surface in the middle of the pond. One victim, a 35 year old female, was found inside and was pulled from the water by Pike divers and the Engine 84 crew of Ryan Rowley and Terrie Wyant. She was quickly placed into a stokes basket and transported to Wishard. I did hear that the medic crew gave an excellent effort en route, however, we found out later that she was pronounced dead in the ER.

There can be a lot of emotions you run through during runs like this. There's excitement during the response as you listen to to size-up on the radio, play out procedures in your head and put on your gear and equipment. There's some confusion when you get to the scene, greeted by bright lights and strobes, cameras, concerned bystanders and what seems like hundreds of other people. There's a nervous feeling when things develop more slowly than you'd like because minutes can seem like hours when you are someone's only hope as the news cameras roll. Then the elation of the rescue. Things went well. You see smiles all around as you pack up your equipment to go home, saying hellos to old and new friends from other trucks and complimenting each other on a job well done. Then, many times, there's the disappointment, the sadness and the frustration that in spite of all this effort someone still lost their life.

All of this these emotions come and go for the most part. One is replaced by another fairly quickly. The support truck arrives with coffee, hot chocolate and candy bars. That, of course, always helps. Back at the firehouse we clean up, insult each other and fart. A lot. FaceBook statuses are updated and we head for the bunk rooms cold and tired.
At 3:30 a.m. we wake up to help someone with an ulcer... that they've had for five months. This run pretty much involved only one emotion...