Looking over the wreckage of the home that burned to the ground, a shiver ran through me that was quite unrelated to the brisk cold of the morning air. The front door of the house still remained, and in that door were more than 50 holes — holes that we suspect came from an AK-47. A building occupant obviously didn’t want us putting out the fire. A police officer narrowly missed being killed as bullets smashed through his cruiser, while my medic crew (not far behind the cruiser) had to run for their lives as bullets started flying through the neighborhood.
I’ve been around this business a long time, much of that time spent as a street medic in a high call volume fire department in an economically depressed area with a host of drug and alcohol problems. I thought I’d seen it all. Now it seems I finally have. All crews were quickly pulled back while the suspect continued to shoot up the neighborhood. We could do little more than watch helplessly from blocks away while the house burned to the ground and the scene was taken over by SWAT and ATF. Three bodies were recovered from the house, one the suspected shooter.
While I’m thankful that no bystanders or public-safety responders were seriously injured, I’m incredibly frustrated by this incident. The frustration comes from the realization that, despite all of our training, this isn’t something you can really prepare for. The initial call came in as your “typical” structure fire in a single-family residential house in a quiet and well-manicured neighborhood. The only slight evidence we had that something might be amiss is that some callers reported hearing what sounded like ammunition going off in the fire. By that time, police and our crews already were pulling up in front of the house. What police officer, firefighter, or medic isn’t going to rush up to the front door to make sure everyone is out and safe? We can’t exactly adopt a policy that all structure fires have to be cleared by police before we deploy handlines. At some point we have to take it on faith that most people want us to put their fires out and protect their lives and property.
I’m not sure what lessons we take away from this incident, but I’m sure I’ll be wracking my brain about it for months. Perhaps in the end I’ll just resign myself to the fact that sometimes we just get damned lucky to be around another day to hopefully help the people who need us.
Dominick Swinhart, BSHS, EMT-P (ret), is fire chief of the Camas (Wash.) Fire Department.
