Wrong way!

I was covering on B-shift today. I was on Rescue. LPX was still down so I just did what I could today. At about five-thirty I had been playing in a multi-table poker tournament and I was doing really well. Then a call came out for a structure fire. I went to the station leaving my game on auto-fold.

I got in my turnouts and put on my SCBA and we went enroute. When we got on scene the fire was out and they were using fans to clean out the building. We were told to go to station one and stand by for additional calls. As we were at the stop sign at Rocky way the tones go out for a fire on a deck that was extinguished. It was on State street near Blaine street. When were we on our way to the first call I saw smoke coming from a house in the area, but it looks like it was a BBQ that was smoking. We got on scene and it turns out it was the fires’ smoke I was seeing.

We looked for ignition sources and could not find one. So we called for the fire investigator. When he got there he saw some items that he recognized and was able to determine it was spontaneous combustion. We cleared the scene and went to station two. We did our daily vehicle checks and I polished my boots.

When I was done with that I was going to wipe the floor where I was polishing them when I heard we were going to be dispatched to a roll-over accident. We got in our turnouts and I was driving. It was my first code response in Rescue since coming back. I was happy about that.

We were going down Grand near UPS in the construction zone. A car in front of us was taking its time pulling over. When it did it was still blocking my lane partially. So I did a quick lane change and avoided hitting any cones. Then I found a spot to quickly get back over. The guys in Rescue were commenting on my swift maneuvering.

The call was at about mile-post thirteen on SR-One-Ninety-Four. It was a long code run. Just was we were pulling into the driveway where the accident was we were cancelled. So we turned around and went back to the station.

I watched the rest of an episode of CSI and then I got some pizza, and went to my office. I invited Ryan over. He came over and had some pizza and we played poker for a few hours. He took off a little after midnight and I played a few more games before going to bed.

At about three in the morning there was a transfer from PRH to Eastern. That woke me up. It was about an hour after that when I was drifting off to sleep we got called to Wadleigh for a possible stroke.

We were going code and it was in the wee hours of the morning. For some reason I was thinking that I should go over Stadium Way and down to Bishop Blvd like when we go to Bishop Place. When we turned onto Stadium Way I asked the guys in the Rescue if they go that way to Bishop Place. Travis said he does, but we were going to “SOUTHWEST”. I thought for half a second and realized that I was going the long way to the call. So we turned up B-Street to come back around to Grand and keep going. I figured at four in the morning no one would see us.

But all of a sudden the dispatcher got on the radio and said “Rescue-thirty-Two did you just turn up B-Street?” We were all shocked they knew. Travis got on the radio and stumbled over his words trying to answer that question. We were trying to save whatever face we could. The dispatcher asked if we were going the right way now. Travis responded that we were on course.

We came down Whitman and there was a cop sitting at the red light at Whitman and Grand. I knew he was the one who let dispatch know where we were. I just smiled because I knew that he knew we went the wrong way.

We got on scene and packaged the patient and transported her to PRH. We got the cot made up and then headed back to the station. We were laughing and I was horrified by going up Stadium. When we got to the station Phil was there and poked some fun at us about it.

I called Whitcom and talked to Terry about it. She was the one dispatching us. She said they had a good laugh about it. Then I called PPD and talked to the cop who had seen us going the wrong way. It was Scott. After talking to him I tried to get some sleep but I tossed and turned for the next hour because that wrong turn kept replaying in my mind.