Most people take it for granted that we have the ability to call 911 and get a lightning-fast response time from our local firefighters and first responders. On top of the work they do for us by putting out fires, firefighters also end up getting called for random assignments that have nothing to do with putting out flames. You’ve probably all heard of the stories about firefighters rescuing a cat from a tree. But you won’t believe some of the crazy things they have been called in for! Here at Home Addict, we’ve put together some of the dumbest reasons why firefighters were called in to save people’s lives.
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36. The Drunken Mountain Rescue
“I was a volunteer firefighter with a rural department in the foothills of Appalachia. Very small college town. Like, roughly 1500 students and about 500 locals. Every year we had students fall off the side of the relatively gentle-sloping “mountains” around campus. These falls were rarely fatal or even likely to cause serious injury. One of the fraternities had a big formal and we got the call that someone had wandered off from the party and couldn’t be found. This is just before cell phones started to be everywhere.
“Turns out it is a guy in my class who I know pretty well. We go out in the woods looking for him, and heard groaning. Not a far drop, about 15 feet, but sheer sides and no way to walk out. So we have to get the high-angle rescue truck with all our ropes and the backboard. The whole time he fought us on it. I’m sitting there trying to explain, ‘Hey man, it’s me, your buddy, you know me, let me help you.’ Guy kept lurching away from us, taking swings, and rolling off the board whenever we finally got him on it. It took half of the small, undermanned fire department all goddamn night to get him out. Like, he literally had time to sober up enough to become cooperative.”