You know that old saying Don't Panic Unless It's your House

[Itsmy6]

Well those words have never been so true than last night.

get a call from my SIL saying my house is on fire. So we fly down the street blaring the horn. get home and find out it's not ours it's the duplex next to ours and thank god everybody got out. Turns out It was a cooking fire and the whole place is lost due to smoke damage, but the people that live next door to her can go back in and live thanks to a fire wall. American red cross and one of the girls that lived there her family is helping her out.

[bcarey]

very true...

I had that happen once. The pager went off, a first due box, saw the address and the text, "...house Fire...smoke coming from the house" Listened to the scanner on the way "..on the scene, smoke showing...". Thankfully it was furnace backup, but the smoke and oil soot damage was terrible. The crew knew whose house it was and that saved me from not having to replace too many windows.

Glad it wasn't yours. In Bill Noonan's "Smoke Showing" there's a photograph of a Boston firefighter bringing an occupant down a ladder at his own house. It's probably happened to quite a few of us; who knows? I ran a wreck once that involved a family member, and another time ended up transporting my old man to hospital from the fireground. That's a kick in the gut feeling for sure when you know the address personally.

[Leeland]

Well for me, so far I have been lucky. With my folks in Pittsburgh, PA it would definitely make a long distance mutual aid call. I do worry about my other half since she seems to be a bit more accident prone as we both get older.

As for my department knowing my address, that is a laugh since they sent a fund drive letter to my house with the name of the previous owner. The volunteers and career staff at my station know where I live and know that if I call it's something beyond my control.

[Dalmatian190]

Was listening one evening when the town over from us got toned out for a structure fire "in the vicinity of" that was coming in by a cell phone. Something just sound odd in the dispatcher's voice, more stress than usual...

As the units started to sign on, the Dispatcher came back with an update and much more relieved voice, "Chief, this is the house *next to* mine, I called my wife and the size-up is _________________."

[res1cueffd]

We had a structure fire on the night of new years day last year that got paged out as the chiefs house. He of course leapt out of bed and saw the glow of the house next door burning.

[Jay911]

I haven't had to respond to or dispatch my own house, but I've come close. When I was a kid, my neighbor's house had a pretty good fire going; I was too young, but my father was on the FD and spent most of the night next door working.

I have had to take 911 calls from family members before regarding relatives who needed help, and I have also dispatched my own crews to an MVC involving one of our department members in our own area (unrelated to a response, before anyone asks). That was a bit of a stressful morning.