Small Town Death and Life

Chapter 3

One of the first things any emergency services worker learns how to do is to separate their work lives from the rest of their lives.  We see people on the worst day of their lives, and some of what we see is pretty awful.

In general, we don't look to recognize people when we get called to help them...a lot of times we don't want to recognize them.  Sometimes it's merely a coping mechanism, and sometimes even when we know them, we don't recognize them because its out of the usual context that we know them.  Nobody expects their neighbour to be the one in that mangled car.

So when this injured young girl, strapped to a backboard and stretcher with a cervical collar around her neck said my name, it made me stop and look more closely at her.

"Josh." I said, trying to get his attention.

"Josh!"

He looked over at me.  "Josh, is this...?"

"Yeah" Josh cut me off.  "Chief Whitehead has already started the notifications."

I turned my attention back to the girl on the stretcher beside me.

"Kayla, it's Mike.  We're taking you to the hospital."

"Mike, what happened? What's going on?"

Fear sparks in her eyes as she beings to realize just how serious the situation is.  Kayla is one of our Fire Rangers, high school students who train with the fire department and help us out with all of the work that happens after the trucks go back to the hall.  

Like most fire departments in North America, we rely almost exclusively on Volunteer Firefighters.  Our officers; Captains, Platoon Chiefs and up, are all paid employees who look after all of the administrative tasks that go with running a Fire Department.  In addition to their administrative tasks, they also do fire inspections, organize fire prevention events, investigate suspicious fires, and most of the support functions that have to happen in order for a Fire Department to function effectively.

One of my tasks for the past eight months has been to help run the Fire Ranger program, to teach them the basics of firefighting and the tasks that have to be done around the station.  The idea is that these students get skills they can take with them into the world after they graduate, and the Fire Department gets help for all of the extra work that happens after a call is over.  Each of us has a day job, and anything that will get us out of the hall quicker and back to work is greatly appreciated.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that when the Fire Rangers turn 18, they already have all of their certifications to become a full Firefighter, and can jump right in with a platoon.

Kayla is one of our best Rangers, a smart girl with a strong aptitude for leadership and a desire to work hard.  She is usually found in the company of four other Rangers, who make up our Senior Fire Ranger platoon.  Kayla is the Senior Ranger Officer, the one who is essentially in charge of the Ranger program.  The other Firefighters and I serve as advisors and mentors, but we try to let the Rangers run their own system with us providing guidance and advice.

This is what scares me on this early morning...that I am potentially looking at all of our Senior Fire Rangers being loaded into ambulances, or being prepared for the Coroner.

"Mike, what happened?" Kayla's voice is weak and shaky.

"You were in an MVC, your car collided head-on with a transport." I take a deep breath "Kayla, I need to know who was with you..."

"We were all there, Sean, Nicole, Adam, Aliesha and I."

That's it, that's all of them.

Sean Cross, an athletic teen with great physical abilities.  Not only is he a Fire Ranger, he's also on the football team in the fall, and the soccer team in the summer.  Not always the smartest person in the group, but he is always willing to learn and picks up quickly on most things.

Nicole Thomas, a quiet girl who tends to fade into the background, but who is always listening and learning.  While she struggled with the physical aspect of the job, she excelled at the theoretical and intellectual part.  

If you asked Nicole how long she and Sean had been dating, she would have said all of their lives.  Sean would have told you something different, but that was only because he hadn't really noticed Nicole was a girl until about three or four years ago.

Aliesha Norris, a tall, beautiful girl whose looks often made people underestimate her.  She was smart, hard-working, and by all accounts the most popular girl in school.  Underneath all of that was a drive to help other people as evidenced not only by her involvement as a Ranger, but in the countless hours she devoted to other charities and organizations.

Adam Fischer was only a Ranger because of Aliesha.  He had joined last year in the hopes that Aliesha would notice him.  A self-professed music geek, he often had a hard time standing out from the crowd but his willingness to learn made him an excellent Fire Ranger.  And apparently his gamble worked...he and Aliesha had been going out for a few months now.

As I thought about the fact that I hadn't recognized any of these kids who I had worked so closely with over the last year, I realized that all of a sudden we had no senior Rangers. I helped the medics load Kayla's stretcher into the back of the ambulance, and began to consider how to break the news to the rest of the department and all of the Rangers.