Reagans white House Funeral and ER Sirens Dont mix

[UTFFEMT]

Does anybody out there also notice all the Emergency sirens going on in the background of the reagans Funeral proceedings. It seems like most every time there is something like this or President Bush speaks there are always sirens going off in the background.

It just seems to me that during such national events that DC Fire and EMS could use silent runs when there is a call in the area of the White house.

Not to compromise ER to those in need but seems like some forthought and consideration should be taken when such National Events like this take place.

What do you think about it or am I the only one it bothers?? :eek:

[Weruj1]

Tough Cookies .........whats the law say in DC about lights no sirens ? I mean Counselor they were eulogizing Ron and we only had our lights on .........no siren so as not to disturb the dead. Or hey .........no runs for us as we are too close to run Code 3, send the next farthest company ..............its just a fire. Sorry it bugs you and pardon my sarcasm.

[RescuHoppy7]

Yah I have alot of repsect for Ronald and all he did as president but If I had a patient who is in bad shape, to me at that moment my patient comes first and if I disrupt a funeral service well sorry but I'm trying to prevent another one.

[MikeWard]

One of the unique things in DC is the number of federal agencies that use lights and sirens in the city, including the commander-in-chief. There are more than a dozen federal agencies with emergency response ability.

When I had an office next to George Washington University hospital I heard sirens all the time. The biggest noise was the presidential motorcade (the Harleys added a nice bass sound), the next loudest was a DCFD box alarm response into the neighborhood.

Following those two events, the next loudest were the motorcades by the vice-president and various heads-of-state. Followed by the normal noises by ambulances, police cruisers and fire rigs.

Mike

P. S. There are "national events" almost every week in DC.
I appreciate that a presidential funeral is a very special event, but it is unrealistic to expect a quiet response from emergency services. Anyways, a large part of the federal reservation is blocked for the events today, tomorrow and Friday.

[allineedisu]

Originally posted by UTFFEMT
Does anybody out there also notice all the Emergency sirens going on in the background of the reagans Funeral proceedings. It seems like most every time there is something like this or President Bush speaks there are always sirens going off in the background.

It just seems to me that during such national events that DC Fire and EMS could use silent runs when there is a call in the area of the White house.

Not to compromise ER to those in need but seems like some forthought and consideration should be taken when such National Events like this take place.

What do you think about it or am I the only one it bothers?? :eek:


First of all: President Reagan body is laying in state at the United States Captiol and not at the White House!

Second: If you have never been in Washington, then you can not even have a faint idea of all the traffic. Any time the President of the United States moves through the District in a motor vehicle, he is escorted by police and the vehicles do have sirens and are in use. This help moves the traffic out his way.

Third: The DCFD ALWAYS use all waring devices on the apparatus when responding to a call. Maybe in some rural area, this isn't needed but in a large metro city it is!

Fourth: There is no way to filter out the back ground noise when any one is having a news conference or meeting. On any given day, you will hear sirens in the District.

Fifth: This national event isn't any different than any other, except that it is a funeral. Besides all funeral are escorted through the District and yes, sirens are used by the police to clear the traffic so the procession can have the right of way.

[DaSharkie]

First off,

It was 93 degrees yesterday with very high humidity. Before the caisson even began carrying carrying the casket even moved I heard the news broascaster mention that at least 4 Capitol police officers were already transported to EDs for various problems.

Secondly,

Well over a hundred thousand people lining a 10 - 20 block stretch of road in this heat, crammed in like sardines, in various states of health, dehydrated beyond belief and they all probably started dropping like flies.

Thirdly,

A few thousand men and women in military dress (which I can tell from my own experience as a Marine, that our dress uniform is less than comfortable when it is cold outside) standing in the sun with no means to hydrate themselves, in peak physical condition standing immediately outside of the capitol building, I expect a few of them probably dropped.

Fourthly,

Life goes on, it was small, petty, insignificant, and nothing could have been done about it. People in a crowd are not going to get out of your way. They sort of just look at you sitting there yelling at them with all of your lights flashing, wondering if they should move or not.

[CaptainMikey]

Think of this, DCFD is runing to a call, turns off their sirens around the whitehouse, and a car does not hear the sirens, because they are off, car pulls out into street and driver has no time to react, boom. I dont care what is going on, if I am the driver of an apparatus, I will allways use my emergency devies while traveling to a call that is listed as code 1 (in my area, code 1 is emergency response)

[ndvfdff33]

Funeral Or No Funeral...If they are responding to a call they should be running code...Maybe in the boonies its different but in a large city like D.C. you need sirens...I'm sure Average Joes funeral in D.C. has sirens in the middle so why should Reagan be any different..Like Captain Mikey said..If they hit someone and kill them..Citys not gonna say oh its ok it was President Reagans funeral..S**t will hit the fan..SOG's or SOP's are there for a Safety Purposes and must be followed

[UTFFEMT]

Its interesting the input on this, I aggree for the most part with eveyones reponces, however I having been a involved for many years with large scale events such as this over the years, including dealing with over 1.3 million people over two days in tight geographical areas.

With proper planning we had prestagged EMS and Fire units all over the areas and responded to emergencies silent runs. Once we were outside those areas, then they would upgrade to code 3 and or expedite to the hospital.

Going code 3 in those highly concentrated areas would not do any good anyhow since it was basically gridlock.

Well anyways just thought what your opinions were and sounds good to hear from you. Thanx

UTFFEMT



:D :D :D

[Rescue101]

First off does anyone think Ronald really minded? Secondly do you think he REALLY wanted to come back to DC? He probably would have been just as content to stay in CA.And I'm reasonably certain he wouldn't have really wanted the excess tax burden that all of this hullabaloo has cost us all.President Reagan,particularly in his waining years was a man who enjoyed life's simpler pleasures,too bad a few more of us couldn't get on that bandwagon.T.C.

[Weruj1]

Rescue ..............the descion to have a "State" funeral is decided way back when he was in office.

[Rescue101]

Weruj,Not that it influences me one way or another but I believe the family has the final say on arrangements or let me rephrase.My mother was a very good and very popular teacher in the local school system for over half a century.Her wishes,predetermined, are for NO services.Something that won't be very popular.However I have no choice but to honor those wishes. Some times I think things don't necessarily go as planned by the individuals themselves.I think this is one of those times.A grand salute,never the less.T.C.

[Weruj1]

right right ,,,,,,,,,,,,

[FireChaplain186]

Working 2 blocks from the Capitol and just across the street from Union Station, I see a fair number of responses from our DCFD brothers & sisters; and even for as long as I've been here, and the similar (but not quite so bad) conditions across the river in Arlington (where I run), it consistently amazes me that these folks, especially the medics/ambulances it seems, can sit behind traffic at an intersection for up to 2 minutes, lights on, sirens blaring, and practically standing on the air horn, while the "I'm-more-important-than-who-ever-is-in-the-back-of-your-ambulance" self-involved baffoons here just look in the rearview mirrors of their luxury sedans at the apparatus, and making gestures for them to be quiet. That's on any (every) day of the week. Add in the road/area closures, the extra traffic & civilians out walking around in this area last week, and, well, I sure hope that whoever's in the back of the unit can wait a little while. You can't really not use everything you have to try to move through traffic here, regardless of what's going on; you just can't.

Tony

[jasper45]

Originally posted by Rescue101
First off does anyone think Ronald really minded? Secondly do you think he REALLY wanted to come back to DC? He probably would have been just as content to stay in CA.And I'm reasonably certain he wouldn't have really wanted the excess tax burden that all of this hullabaloo has cost us all.President Reagan,particularly in his waining years was a man who enjoyed life's simpler pleasures,too bad a few more of us couldn't get on that bandwagon.T.C. President Reagen was very involved in the planning of his funeral. Most President's plan their service out during their last year in office. President Nixon did not wish for a state funeral, and did not recieve one. It would be difficult to know if President Reagan changed his mind in his later years, his mind was stolen from him by a horrible disease. My personal opinion is that the pain of his death was eased somewhat for the Reagan family to see just how many people the President had touched during his service to our great nation.

[CALFFBOU]

- What are "ER sirens"? Something for the Emergency Room?

- There is not such thing as a "silent approach". Is that
what Santa does on Dec. 24th? Use Code 2. (See below)

Standard response modes-

-CODE 1- Routine non-emergency driving.
-CODE 2- Urgent, but no warning lights or siren. Must
obey the traffic laws.
-CODE 3- Urgent using warning lights and sirens. May
dis-obey traffic laws.

Thats it, simple and sweet. As for a emergency response,
use your lights and siren as deemed by your agency. I dont
always use the siren between intersections with no vehicles.

As for funerals and such, I will respond in the code mode
as dispatched and utilize the vehicle's warning equipment
as needed. (most likely full blown code 3)

-Bou

[hwoods]

As a Fire Chief in the DC suburbs, I am NOT running an EMERGENCY call without lights AND sirens. Period. Maryland Law says that I must be sounding an audible signal when responding. End of story.

[allineedisu]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by UTFFEMT
[B]Its interesting the input on this, I aggree for the most part with eveyones reponces, however I having been a involved for many years with large scale events such as this over the years, including dealing with over 1.3 million people over two days in tight geographical areas.

With proper planning we had prestagged EMS and Fire units all over the areas and responded to emergencies silent runs. Once we were outside those areas, then they would upgrade to code 3 and or expedite to the hospital.

Going code 3 in those highly concentrated areas would not do any good anyhow since it was basically gridlock.

Well anyways just thought what your opinions were and sounds good to hear from you. Thanx

UTFFEMT
****************************** ************************

A BIG difference in Park City, Utah and Washington, D. C. I have been to Park City and you can get from one end to the other in maybe 5 minutes. You can't get one or two blocks in DC without sometype of warning device. Without lights and siren the members would never be able to cut through all the traffic and some poor fellow may not get to the hospital on time or a life may not be saved with and engine or truck didn't get to that apartment in time.

Not really sure about the laws in Utah, but back East, you have to run both Lights and Siren, if you run one or the other. Only an idiot would try to get throught all the traffic not running lights or siren.

:cool: :cool:

[UTFFEMT]

A BIG difference in Park City, Utah and Washington, D. C. I have been to Park City and you can get from one end to the other in maybe 5 minutes. You can't get one or two blocks in DC without sometype of warning device. Without lights and siren the members would never be able to cut through all the traffic and some poor fellow may not get to the hospital on time or a life may not be saved with and engine or truck didn't get to that apartment in time.

First off, I only now live in Park City, I dont work there. I work in the Valley(Big City). Secondly My experiances are actaully based in Los Angles areas and so I have Extensive experience responding in Heavy traffic.

Being involed in large scale High congestion incidents in the past, With proper PRE-PLANNING for special events ie: National Funerals, air shows, Olympics etc. There is was a way to respond rappidly while not poluting the air with unnessary sirens. I know it can be done becuase it was done and I was there to help do it.

So you siren happy folk need to take a chill pill and think more proactive now so invasive like wer tryen to take a toy away from you.

Remember I am only talking about a special occasion not as a daily mode of operation.

For example out here they have been doing major Highway improvements over the past several years. When and emergency vehicle would need to get a to a call in these areas with proper PRE-PLANNING they had a ER vehicle only corridor to access these areas improving responce times and assisitance. Not by going the regular conventional routes and blaring thiers sirens which due to conditions would not have helped anyone due to the fact that too much traffic and your in gridlock anyways and going nowhwere faster than a regular car is even with sirens.

This same system worked during the Winter Olympics I was a part of a couple of years ago here in Utah. We had special corridors set up that in essence bypassed regular traiffic routes to expetite care and responce when needed.

So take a chillpill and think more progressive not so old school and worried that they are trying to take away your siren toy. Sometimes more noise is not better nor does it do any good in the first place during high traffic conditions. :p